Trauma Patient Volume and the Quality of Care: A Scoping Review

Healthcare stakeholders in the Netherlands came to an agreement in 2022 to deal with present and future challenges in healthcare. Among others, this agreement contains clear statements regarding the concentration of trauma patients, including the minimal required number of annual severe trauma patients for Major Trauma Centers. This review investigates the effects of trauma patient volumes on several domains of the quality of healthcare.

PubMed was searched; studies published during the last 10 years reporting quantitative data on trauma patient volume and quality of healthcare were included. Results were summarized and categorized into the quality domains of healthcare.

Seventeen studies were included with a total of 1,517,848 patients. A positive association between trauma patient volume and survival was observed in 11/13 studies with adjusted analyses. Few studies addressed other quality domains: efficiency (n = 5), safety (n = 2), and time aspects of care (n = 4). None covered people-centeredness, equitability, or integrated care.

Most studies showed a better survival of trauma patients when treated in high-volume hospitals compared to lower volume hospitals. However, the ideal threshold could not be determined. The association between trauma volume and other domains of the quality of healthcare remains unclear.