An economic evaluation of triage tools for patients with suspected severe injuries in England.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Many health care systems triage injured patients to major trauma centres (MTCs) or local hospitals by using triage tools and paramedic judgement. Triage tools are typically assessed by whether patients with an Injury Severity Score (ISS) ≥ 16 go to an MTC and whether patients with an ISS < 16 are sent to their local hospital. There is a trade-off between sensitivity and specificity of triage tools, with the optimal balance being unknown. We conducted an economic evaluation of major trauma triage tools to identify which tool would be considered cost-effective by UK decision makers.

Methods

A patient-level, probabilistic, mathematical model of a UK major trauma system was developed. Patients with an ISS ≥ 16 who were only treated at local hospitals had worse outcome

SUBMITTER: Pollard D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8753918 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature