Clinical surgery-AmericanDoes increased emergency medical services prehospital time affect patient mortality in rural motor vehicle crashes? A statewide analysis
Section snippets
Materials and Methods
An imputational methodology using a 95% confidence interval and 12 join-specifications were used to link data from Police Accident Reports (PARs) and EMS Patient Care Reports (PCRs). Data were collected retrospectively from EMS PCRs (117,605) and PARs (274,175 PARS and 741,007 occupant records) from the State of Alabama during the 2-year period from January 2001 through December 2002. Linkage of crash data to EMS and/or hospital data was accomplished using Crash Outcome Data Evaluation System
Results
A total of 45,763 PARs were linked to EMS PCRs. Of these, 34,341 (75%) were injured in rural settings and 11,422 (25%) were injured in urban settings. Overall, 714 (1.6%) mortalities from MVCs occurred during the study period. A total of 611 (1.78%) mortalities occurred in rural settings and 103 (.90%) occurred in urban settings (P < .0001). Of all rural trauma patients, .94% were DOS and .46% of all urban patients were DOS (P < .0001). Of the patients who died in rural settings 322 (53%) were
Comments
It has been reported previously that increased EMS prehospital time adversely effects patient mortality from MVCs.2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 The purpose of this study was to assess, on a statewide level, whether EMS prehospital time affects the mortality rate from MVCs in the rural state of Alabama.
The overall mortality rate during the 20-month study period caused by rural MVCs was double the urban rate in Alabama. This concurs with prior published data that found mortality rates from MVCs
Acknowledgment
This work was performed under a cooperative agreement with the United States Department of Transportation/National Highway Safety Traffic Administration.
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This research and article were funded through a cooperative agreement between the University of South Alabama and the Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The views expressed are those of the authors and do not represent the views of the sponsors or the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.