A dedicated craniofacial trauma team improves efficiency and reduces cost

Area of Science:

• Trauma Surgery
• Surgical Outcomes
• Healthcare Management

Background:

• Limited medical resources necessitate cost reduction while maintaining high-quality patient care.
• A dedicated craniofacial and skull base trauma team (SBT) was implemented at a Level I trauma center.
• Prior care involved a rotating panel of private surgical subspecialists (Pre-SBT).

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of a dedicated SBT on patient care costs and quality.
• To compare outcomes between the dedicated team and the previous subspecialist panel model.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective review of trauma registry and patient charts.
• Inclusion of all craniofacial and skull base trauma cases over 18 months Pre-SBT and 18 months post-SBT implementation.
• Comparison of patient demographics, injury characteristics, and clinical outcomes between the two periods.

Main Results:

• Comparable patient demographics and injury types between Pre-SBT and SBT groups.
• SBT group showed a significant reduction in inter-institutional transfers (7 vs 1).
• SBT group demonstrated statistically significant decreases in subspecialty consultations (2.4 vs 1.3), time to operation (7.5 vs 3.0 days), length of hospitalization (11.8 vs 6.8 days), and hospital charges ($106,424 vs $58,136).

Conclusions:

• A dedicated craniofacial trauma team enhances comprehensive patient care at Level I trauma centers.
• Implementation of an SBT improves operational efficiency.
• Dedicated trauma teams lead to significant cost reductions in craniofacial and skull base injury management.