Evaluating Services at a Major Trauma Center Before Helipad Construction

Two of the 4 hospitals designated as major trauma centers in London, UK, currently operate on-site helicopter landing pads. King's College Hospital (KCH) is constructing a third. We evaluate current trauma services at King's College Hospital, before the helipad entering service, establishing baseline workload and mortality measures.

We retrospectively analyzed data from patients admitted January 1, 2014, to December 31, 2015, to KCH after major trauma with on-scene helicopter emergency medical services involvement (N = 427) using the Trauma Audit and Research Network database.

The median Injury Severity Score of the cohort was 22 (interquartile range [IQR], 13-30). The median length of stay was 11 days (IQR, 5-24). Fifty-seven percent of the patients received intensive care unit (ICU) admission, with a median ICU length of stay (LOS) of 5 days (IQR, 2-12) in this subgroup. There was no significant difference in Injury Severity Score, LOS, or ICU LOS between 2014 and 2015. One hundred ninety-three patients (45.2%) underwent ≥ 1 operation, accounting for 1,276.5 hours of operating room time in total. Cox proportional hazards regression showed no difference in survival outcomes between 2014 and 2015.

Baseline workload and mortality measures were obtained, forming the basis of future service evaluation to assess the impact of helipad construction.