Evaluation of trauma care by comparing mortality risks and admission policy in a Dutch trauma region.

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of trauma care in the Netherlands compared to UK norms and in terms of mortality risks in three groups of patients. The hypothesis was that there is no difference in risk of hospital death between major trauma patients transferred from another hospital to the trauma centre and patients directly admitted to the trauma centre.

Methods: Trauma admissions (n=17,023) during the period 2000-2006 in 12 emergency departments were selected from a regional trauma registry database.