Illinois hospitals face challenges in transferring critically injured patients to trauma centers, often leading to delays that can result in preventable deaths. A study by Northwestern Medicine highlights the need for improved inter-hospital transportation and communication of clinical information.
Dr. Anne Stey, senior author of the study and assistant professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, emphasized the importance of collaboration within hospital systems: “In the hospital system, we’re more than just the sum of our parts,” she said. “How we work together in these spaces is really, really critical for actually saving people's lives.”
The research surveyed nine high-level trauma hospitals and three pediatric trauma centers across Illinois. It involved interviews with 64 healthcare workers to identify areas needing improvement. The study found that many critically injured patients are initially taken to non-trauma ERs before being transferred, often exceeding the recommended two-hour window.
To address these issues, scientists suggest increasing access to critical-care ambulances and enhancing transport staff training. They also recommend new mechanisms for exchanging information like radiology scans between hospitals.
An earlier study by Stey’s team focused on problems faced by non-trauma hospitals during transfers. These included unclear criteria for patient transfers and difficulties connecting with higher-level trauma centers.
Stey’s team is developing guidelines for hospital staff to bridge these gaps. One solution already implemented is a bed tracker developed during COVID-19 hospitalizations by the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH). This tool allows hospitals to share bed capacity data via a shared dashboard, reducing human error and saving time.
“Initiatives like that are the types of things that can make a big difference,” Stey noted. “If hospitals are willing to collaborate more broadly around sharing the bed resources that they have available and prioritizing injured patients in particular, there is so much potential to save people from dying at small, non-trauma hospitals.”
The National Institutes of Health funded this study along with support from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (grant number K23HL157832).