MyUSTINET News: Lack Of Rural Trauma Training Ups Deaths

TORONTO, Jan. 27 (UPI) -- Limited access to high-quality trauma care in many smaller Ontario hospitals may be a factor in the province's high injury mortality rate, researchers say.

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Researchers from St. Michael's in Toronto looked at 3,486 trauma-related deaths that occurred in Ontario between 2002-2003, the most recent data available for analysis.

The study, published in the Journal of Trauma, found that more than half of the deaths occurred before the injured person reached a hospital emergency room. These "pre-hospital" deaths were twice as likely among patients injured in the most rural locations and in those with limited access to timely trauma center care.

"But even when people survived long enough to reach hospital, we noted a three-fold increase in the risk of emergency department death if the injury occurred in a region with limited access to trauma center care", Dr. Avery B. Nathens, director of trauma services at St. Michael's and Canada Research Chair in Systems of Trauma Care, says in a statement.

"This means people were more likely to die before ever reaching an operating room or being admitted to hospital", he said.

All of Ontario's trauma centers are in cities, but there is no requirement that smaller, more rural hospitals have a trauma team to assist in providing early care to stabilize severely injured patients, Nathens says.

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