Predictors of Inappropriate Helicopter Transport

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-15-2020

Publication Title

American Surgeon

Abstract

Background: Helicopter transport (HT) is an efficient, but costly, means for injured patients to receive life-saving, definitive trauma care. Identifying the characteristics of inappropriate HT presents an opportunity to improve the utilization of this finite medical resource. Methods: Trauma registry records of all HT for a 3-year period (2016-2018) to an urban Level I trauma center were reviewed. HT was defined as inappropriate for patients who were discharged home from the emergency department or had a hospital length of stay <1 >day, and who were discharged alive. Chi-square analysis and Student’s t-test were used for univariate analysis. Predictors with a P value of less than.15 were subject to binary logistic regression analysis. A P value ≤.05 was considered significant. Results: There were 713 patients who received HT during the study period. One-hundred and forty-eight (20.8%) patients met the criteria as an inappropriate HT. In univariate analysis, Glasgow Coma Scale >8, Shock Index 55 was found to be associated with an appropriate HT. The average Injury Severity Score of the inappropriate HT group was 3.86 (±3.85) compared with 16.80 (±11.23) (P =.0001, Student’s t-test). Discussion: Our findings suggest that there are evidence-based predictors of patients receiving inappropriate HT. Triage of HT using these predictors has the potential to decrease unnecessary deployments and reduce health care costs.

First Page

248

Last Page

252

PubMed ID

32927969

Volume

87

Issue

2

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