Death by the minute: Inequities in trauma care for victims of firearm violence

Abstract

Background Gunshot wounds (GSWs) remain a significant source of mortality in the United States. Timely delivery of trauma care is known to be critical for survival. We sought to understand the relationship of predicted transport time and death after GSW. Given large racial disparities in firearm violence we also sought to understand disparities in transport times and death by victim race, an unstudied phenomenon. Methods Firearm mortality data were obtained from the Boston Police Department 2005-2023. Firearm incidents were mapped using ArcGIS. Predicted transport times for each incident to the closest trauma center were calculated in ArcGIS. Spatial autoregressive models were used to understand the relationship between victim race, transport time to a trauma center and mortality associated with the shooting incidents. Results There were 4,545 shooting victims with 758 deaths. Among those who lived, the median transport time was 9.4 minutes (IQR 5.8, 13.8) and 10.5 minutes (IQR 6.4, 14.6, p = 0.003) for those who died. In the multivariable logistic regression, increased transport time to the nearest trauma center (OR 1.024, 95% CI 1.01-1.04) and age (OR 1.016, 95% CI 1.01-1.02) were associated with mortality. There was a modest difference in median transport time to the nearest trauma center by race with non-Hispanic Black at 10.1 minutes, Black Hispanic 9.2 minutes, white Hispanic 8.5 minutes, and non-Hispanic white 8.3 minutes (p < 0.001). Conclusions Our results highlight the relationship of transport time to a trauma center and death after a GSW. Non-white individuals had significantly longer transport times to a trauma center and predicted mortality would have been lower with white victim transport times. These data underscore the importance of timely trauma care for GSW victims and can be used to direct more equitable trauma systems. Level of Evidence Level III, Prognostic/Epidemiological