Defining criteria to choose appropriate destination hospital for trauma patients: Piacenza Local Health Authority’s Piacenza trauma algorithm protocol

Abstract

Ambulance crew's choosing of appropriate destination hospital for trauma patients can affect survival and morbidity outcomes. Aim of the present study is to devise a decision-making algorithm in order to allow the best choice of destination hospital for trauma patients and to apply it on an electronic device able to facilitate the decision made by ambulance staff. The method used was analysis of literature data, context and workload with a retrospective observational study. A comparison between the destination hospitals actually chosen and those that could have been chosen with the Piacenza trauma algorithm has been applied. The data shows a 9.5% (P>0.10) more advantageous change in appropriateness in the choice of medical facility and a 1.4% increase in admissions to the Emergency Department of the provincial hospital. The creation and use of a medical protocol and its consequent installation on an electronic device (tablet) that can be shared over a computer platform could help medical staff make appropriate pre-hospital choices as regards the destination hospital for trauma patients.