Implementation of an oral and maxillofacial surgery trauma team in a major trauma centre

In 2010, King's College Hospital in London was designated as a major trauma centre. To deal with the increasing number of patients, an integrated oral and maxillofacial team of the week was established in 2012 to provide a consultant-led, emergency service dedicated to acute care, and it was anticipated that this would reduce the duration of stay by 0.3 bed-days. To assess the effect of the new system, we compared the duration of stay between 1 October and 31 January 2011-2012 with the same period in 2012-2013. We also assessed the activity and training of registrars, and the department's perception of the post of trauma registrar. The mean total duration of stay had decreased significantly by 0.84 days (p=0.03), the mean delay to operation had decreased by 0.3 days, and the mean postoperative stay had decreased by 0.5 days. During one week, the trauma registrar did 12 operations at various sites in the hospital. The new system was a cost-effective way of improving emergency OMFS care and it can be recommended to other centres with similar profiles.