Getting patients to the right level of trauma center after motorcycle crashes in a rural trauma system.

Purpose: After a motorcycle crash (MCC), emergency medical services (EMS) responders must balance trauma center proximity with clinical needs of patients, which is especially challenging in rural states. The study purpose was to determine if MCC patients treated at lower-level trauma centers (LLTC) experienced higher mortality when compared to patients transported directly to the highest level of trauma care available in the state at Level II trauma centers.

Procedures: A retrospective study was conducted on MCC patients transported by EMS to Montana hospitals and met registry inclusion criteria in 2020-2021.