Consequences of increased use of computed tomography imaging for trauma patients in rural referring hospitals prior to transfer to a regional trauma centre.

Background: Computed tomography (CT) plays an integral role in the evaluation and management of trauma patients. As the number of referring hospital (RH)-based CT scanners increased, so has their utilization in trauma patients before transfer. We hypothesized that this has resulted in increased time at RH, image duplication, and radiation dose.