Preventable trauma death rate in Daegu, South Korea

Abstract

ObjectiveThis study investigated the preventable death rate in Daegu, South Korea, and assessed affecting factors and preventable factors in order to improve the treatment of regional trauma patients.MethodsAll traumatic deaths between January 2012 and December 2012 in 5 hospitals in Daegu were analyzed by panel review, which were classified into preventable and non-preventable deaths. We determined the factors affecting trauma deaths and the preventable factors during trauma care.ResultsThere were overall 358 traumatic deaths during the study period. Two hundred thirty four patients were selected for the final analysis after excluding cases of death on arrival, delayed death, and unknown causes. The number of preventable death was 59 (25.2%), which was significantly associated with mode of arrival, presence of head injury, date, and time of injury. A multivariate analysis revealed that preventable death was more likely when patients were secondly transferred from another hospital, visited hospital during non-office hour, and did not have head injuries. The panel discovered 145 preventable factors, which showed that majority of factors occurred in emergency departments (49.0%), and were related with system process (76.6%).ConclusionThe preventable trauma death rate in Daegu was high, and mostly process-related.

Distribution of Trauma Deaths in a Province of Korea: Is “Trimodal” Distribution Relevant Today?

“…[1][2][3][4][5] Although several investigations on preventable trauma deaths have been conducted since the 1990s, few studies have been conducted on the timing of deaths in Korea. [6][7][8][9][10] This could be due to the lower rate of autopsies conducted in the country. 12 However, the main reason was that no basis has been established for in-depth analysis and investigation on trauma deaths due to the lack of a trauma system.…”

“…13,14 Moreover, previous studies on preventable trauma deaths in Korea tended to focus on determining the preventability of death and calculating mortality rates. [6][7][8][9][10] These studies did not investigate in detail the timing of death, mechanism of injury, and cause of death. As a result, the trauma system in Korea has not yet reached a level that is high enough to draw corrective action plans or injury prevention programs.…”

“…Nevertheless, few studies have been conducted on this issue, and as a result, the trauma system is still not in tandem with the Korean situation, despite its highly preventable trauma death rate. [6][7][8][9][10] Gyeonggi Province is one of the representative administrative regions with the highest population density in Korea. Unsurprisingly, the largest number of trauma deaths occurred in the region.…”

Effects of Trauma Center Establishment on the Clinical Characteristics and Outcomes of Patients with Traumatic Brain Injury : A Retrospective Analysis from a Single Trauma Center in Korea

“…When mortality occurred before 3 months, this was described as mortality at 3 months. The preventable death rate was also investigated and defined as (preventable death/total death)×100 [ 17 ].…”

Characteristics and Outcomes of Trauma Patients via Emergency Medical Services

“…In particular, trauma patients have a high socioeconomic loss due to high mortality rates at the age of production. The socioeconomic cost of trauma was estimated at about 13.7 trillion KRW in 2003, and the ratio of loss of productivity due to damage deaths in total socioeconomic cost was 60.2-62.4%, respectively [2]. One study reported in 2006 found that the cost of production loss per trauma death was about 350 million KRW.…”