EMS trauma triage: does the red‐blue criteria enable over‐triage

Researchers: Dawn Higgins

This study will attempt to determine if the San Antonio, Texas‐area prehospital trauma triage criteria are understood and used appropriately by the local Emergency Medical System (EMS) and emergency department personnel. There is some perception by emergency department staff that a large portion of trauma patients are incorrectly assessed in the field by prehospital personnel. The sample population will consist of all adult military and civilians accepted to Wilford Hall Medical Center based on Priority 1 Trauma criteria. One goal of this study is to identify if this is due to misleading trauma triage criteria and/or education of responding personnel.  Other goals of this study include evaluating how well the current trauma criteria appropriately identified patients requiring a Level 1 trauma facility and how well the trauma resuscitation anticipated the needs of the patient.  Pre‐hospital and arrival survey responses will be compared to the calculated patient Injury Severity Score and final disposition for predictive value.