Nine out of ten trauma calls to a Norwegian hospital are avoidable: a retrospective analysis

Our aim was to estimate the degree of overtriage (Injury Severity Score [ISS] ≤ 15) of trauma call patients in Nordland Hospital Bodø, Norway. We also determined the transportation time from injury to hospital admission.

We used data from our Acute Medical Information System, ambulance records and patient charts relating to ISS and estimation of response and transport times. Data were collected for all trauma call patients in the period from the establishment of the trauma call system in June 2008 until the 31st of December 2010.

We identified 421 out of 458 possible trauma call patients with sufficient clinical information available for ISS scoring. Of these 385 had an ISS ≤15. Overtriage was 91.5% (95% CI: 88.8%-94.2%). Median time from injury to the arrival of transport, and from injury to arrival in hospital, was 36 minutes and 1 hour 27 minutes, respectively.

To our knowledge 91.5% is the highest overtriage ever published. There is a need for narrowing the trauma call criteria. This could be achieved by implementing clinical observations during the long transportation time.