Inter-facility transfers for burn patients with concomitant traumatic injuries

Area of Science:

• Trauma Surgery
• Burn Care
• Health Services Research

Background:

• Burn patients with concurrent traumatic injuries face higher morbidity and mortality.
• Effective care coordination for these complex patients is crucial.
• The frequency of inter-facility transfers for this population is not well-documented.

Purpose of the Study:

• To quantify the occurrence of inter-facility transfers in patients with concomitant burn and traumatic injuries.
• To analyze transfer patterns based on trauma center level.
• To inform improvements in triage and resource allocation for trauma/burn patients.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective review of the National Trauma Data Bank (2007-2016).
• Analysis of 6,565,577 patients, including those with traumatic injuries, burn injuries, and combined injuries.
• Comparison of inter-facility transfer rates across different injury groups and trauma center levels.

Main Results:

• Trauma/burn patients had higher ICU admission rates (35.5%) compared to burn (27.1%) or trauma (19.4%) alone.
• Inter-facility transfers were more common in trauma/burn patients (2.5%) versus burn (1.7%) or trauma (1.3%) patients.
• Level II trauma centers showed significantly higher transfer rates for all patient groups, particularly for burn and trauma/burn patients.

Conclusions:

• Patients with combined burn and traumatic injuries necessitate more frequent inter-facility transfers.
• Trauma center level significantly impacts transfer rates, with Level II centers handling a larger proportion.
• Quantifying these transfer patterns is essential for optimizing care pathways and resource management.