“…This type of severity score provides a reliable estimate of initial injury severity, independent of patient‐specific factors that may influence hospitalization. In particular, AIS provides more face validity and empirical support as a measure of initial injury severity than do hospital admission or length of stay, both of which can be related to co‐existing conditions, health status, and trends in insurance coverage and standards of care [National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) Expert Group on Injury Severity Measurement, ; Stephenson et al, ; Cryer and Langley, ; Cryer et al, ; Sears et al, ]. AIS‐based injury severity scores have been validated for prediction of mortality [Baker et al, ; Osler et al, ; Meredith et al, ; Kilgo et al, ; Harwood et al, ], and recent studies have established their association with occupational injury outcomes such as work disability and medical costs [Ruestow and Friedman, ; Sears et al, ].…”