Emergency Medicine: Open Access
Open Access
ISSN: 2165-7548
ISSN: 2165-7548
Muecke S
Australia
Research Article
Health Service Pathways Analysis as Evidence Base for Trauma Policy Change: A Retrospective Study of Patients with Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury
Author(s): Sharwood LN, Boufous S, Muecke S and Middleton JWSharwood LN, Boufous S, Muecke S and Middleton JW
Background: Addressing policy change in traumatic injury care demands a strong evidence base from which to inform necessary amendments, and measure the impact of any change. Current recommendations for acute traumatic spinal cord injury include admission to a specialist Spinal Cord Injury Unit within 24 hours from injury. This study aimed to document pathways for patients with traumatic spinal cord injury across a state-wide Health Service in a historical cohort, prior to and in order to inform trauma policy changes. Methods: Retrospective analysis of a large Ambulance service record-linked dataset, containing 2.04 million Ambulance records linked with hospital and death records (2006-09). Incident cases of traumatic spinal cord injury were identified using ICD-10-AM codes. Multivariate analysis aimed to identify factors associated with admission to specialist units within 24 hours. .. View More»
DOI:
10.4172/2165-7548.1000353