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. 2024 Oct;50(5):2265-2272.
doi: 10.1007/s00068-024-02644-2. Epub 2024 Aug 28.

Effectiveness of a two-tiered trauma team activation system at a level I trauma center

Jamela Abu-Aiada  1 , Elchanan Quint  2 , Daniel Dykman  3 , David Czeiger  2 , Gad Shaked  2   3
Affiliations

Effectiveness of a two-tiered trauma team activation system at a level I trauma center

Jamela Abu-Aiada et al. Eur J Trauma Emerg Surg. 2024 Oct.

Abstract

Purpose: Many trauma patients who are transported to our level I trauma center have minor injuries that do not require full trauma team activation (FTTA). Thus, we implemented a two-tiered TTA system categorizing patients into red and yellow code alerts, indicating FTTA and Limited TTA (LTTA) requirements, respectively. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of this triage tool by evaluating its diagnostic parameters (sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), undertriage and overtriage) and comparing injury severity between the two groups.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study of patients admitted to a Level I trauma center. Characteristics compared between the red and yellow code groups included demographics, injury severity, treatments, and hospital length of stay (LOS). Calculating the diagnostic parameters was based on Injury Severity Score (ISS) and the need for life-saving surgery or procedures.

Results: Significant differences in injury severity indicators were observed between the two groups. Patients in the red code group had a higher ISS and New Injury Severity Score (NISS), a lower Glasgow Coma Score (GCS), Revised Trauma Score (RTS), and probability of survival. They had a longer hospital LOS, a higher Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admission rate and required more emergency operations. The Sensitivity of the triage tool was 85.2%, specificity was 55.6%, PPV was 74.2%, NPV was 71.5%, undertriage was 14.7%, and overtriage was 25.7%.

Conclusion: The two-tiered TTA system effectively distinguish between patients with major trauma who need FTTA and patients with minor trauma who can be managed by LTTA.

Keywords: In-hospital triage; Level I trauma center; Overtriage; Two-tiered trauma team activation; Undertriage.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval: This study was performed in line with the principles of the declaration of Helsinki. Approval was granted by the Institutional Review Board (Helsinki committee) of Soroka University Medical Center. (approval no. SOR-0283-22). Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

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