Defining the representativeness heuristic in trauma triage: A retrospective observational cohort study.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Under-triage of severely injured patients presenting to non-trauma centers (failure to transfer to a trauma center) remains problematic despite quality improvement efforts. Insights from the behavioral science literature suggest that physician heuristics (intuitive judgments), and in particular the representativeness heuristic (pattern recognition), may contribute to under-triage. However, little is known about how the representativeness heuristic is instantiated in practice. METHODS:A multi-disciplinary group of experts identified candidate characteristics of "representative" severe trauma cases (e.g., hypotension). We then reviewed the charts of patients with moderate-to-severe injuries who presented to nine non-trauma centers in western Pennsylvania from 2010-2014 to assess t

SUBMITTER: Kulkarni SS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6368323 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature