OZschwitz: Bad judgment, delays lead to the statist hospital deaths

THERE is an urgent need to change how trauma patients are treated, according to a study that found more than 20 per cent of trauma deaths at Liverpool Hospital would have been avoided if the patient had received better or more timely care.

Of the 307 deaths from 17,157 trauma admissions between 1996 and 2003, 22.5 per cent were avoidable, according to the study conducted by the hospital and the University of NSW, which was published in the ANZ Journal of Surgery.

"In this large cohort of trauma deaths, this study has identified a significant potentially avoidable death rate and associated error rate," the study said. "Errors in judgment accounted for 40.2 per cent of the major-impact errors. Delay to treatment across all phases of care studied was also a major adverse factor on outcome, occurring in 28.7 per cent of major-impact errors," it said.

The study said the results showed there was an "urgent need to change the way we practise trauma care".

It said the results showed how important it was having dedicated trauma surgeons on staff because the two trauma surgeons employed during the study had a "significantly lower, potentially avoidable death rate" when compared with part-time general surgeons.

LNK

OZschwitz: Bad judgment, delays lead to the statist hospital deaths

OZschwitz: Bad judgment, delays lead to the statist hospital deaths

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