TRAUMA CARE IN ITALY
- 1 March 1994
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Wolters Kluwer Health
- Vol. 36 (3) , 401-405
- https://doi.org/10.1097/00005373-199403000-00022
Abstract
The quality of a trauma system can be assessed by the rate of preventable deaths. A random selected sample of 110 trauma patients was examined using both clinical and autopsy data. The assessors were asked the following question: If this patient had sustained the accident in front of the hospital in a normal working day, might death have been prevented? Death was found to be unavoidable in 61 cases; in 25 cases death was classified potentially preventable; 11 cases were classified as clearly preventable death. The main failures of treatment were identified as errors and delays during the first phases of in-hospital assessment and care. An improvement in the pre-hospital phase will be almost useless if the quality of the definitive in-hospital management is not addressed.Keywords
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