Protocol for Urgent and Emergent Cases at a Large Academic Level 1 Trauma Center.

Background Level 1 trauma centers are capable of caring for every aspect of injury and contain 24-hour in-house coverage by general surgeons, with prompt availability of nearly all other disciplines upon request. Despite the wide variety of trauma, currently reported protocols often focus on a single surgical service and studies describing their implementation are lacking. The aim of the current study was to characterize all urgent and emergent cases at a large academic Level 1 trauma center, characterize the specialty and nature of emergent operative cases, and assess the efficacy of the institutional trauma protocol on timing of surgery.