i
Page 12AThe Battalion/Monday, January 16, 1984
Trauma care units
cut deaths in half
United Press International
PORTLAND, Ore. — Critic
ally injured victims of shootings,
wrecks and work accidents are
dying unnecessarily because of a
“frightening” shortage of
trauma care systems, the author
of a pioneering study says.
Dr. Richard Gales, medical
director of the Portland Adven
tist Medical Center emergency
department, and two other doc
tors conducted a study of the
trauma care system in Orange
County, Calif.
They found the number of
preventable vehicular deaths
was cut in half after the system
was established.
The study, published in the
Come Test tlie Taste of
Sweetli:
January issue of Annals of
Emergency Medicine, is the first
to show the value of trauma care
programs involving a network
of hospitals, Cales said.
“We have had trauma care
systems in this country for 10
years,” he said. “Most physicians
have believed they were making
both a positive and effective con
tribution to trauma care. This is
the first study to statistically de
monstrate the improvement in
care.”
Nationally, one person per
thousand has a traumatic acci
dent annually, Cales said, and
trauma is the leading cause of
death in people under 39 years
of age.
Cales, a member of a state
advisory board that is preparing
a proposal for delivery of
trauma care in Oregon, said a
relatively few areas in the Un
ited States have trauma care sys
tems — Houston, Seattle, San
Francisco, the state of Maryland
and Tulsa, Okla.
Los Angeles is developing a
system and San Diego is “talking
about it,” he said.
“A lot of metropolitan areas
are unserved,” Cales said. “It’s
frightening, is what it is.
“Some of the most frustrating
things to a specialist are to work
in a region where there is no
trauma system and see patients
er
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1-16
die who in normal circumst
ances would survive.”
In a trauma care system, cer
tain hospitals which have the
proper facilities are designated
emergency care hospitals. Para
medics bring the critically in
jured to those hospitals.
“A surgical team is waiting at
the door to operate immediately
if necessary,” Cale explained.
“You don’t have to wait to see a
physician, who calls in other
physicians, who then arrange
for an operating room.
“In a non-trauma hospital, it
takes one-and-a-half to two
hours to get into the operating
room. In a trauma hospital, 20
minutes is commonplace. It can
be done sooner, but usually
there are things they need to do
in the emergency room.”
Non-trauma hospitals are not
organized to handle that kind of
emergency on a daily basis, he
said.
Bypassing a regular hospital
to take a seriously injured per
son to a trauma center only
added an average of a minute to
the trip, he saicl.
“Some people who have had
rather negative attitudes toward
a trauma system have claimed
the transportation times are so
lengthy that patients die getting
to a trauma hospital,” he said.
“In this particular study, this did
not occur.”
In Orange County, the doctor
studied 58 deaths before the
trauma system was established
and 60 deaths afterward. The
study found that 34 percent of
the deaths before the system was
in place could have been pre
vented, while after the system
was established only 15 percent
of the victims could have sur
vived.
Most of the deaths after the
system was established occurred
in hospitals outside the trauma
care network, so in fact only 4
percent of the deaths in the
trauma hospitals could have
prevented, Cales said.
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semester:
Monday, Jan. 16 — Spring
Semester Classes begin, Late
Registration begins, Last day for
students with financial aid to pay
fees, Last day for students who
went through delayed registra
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enroll in the University for
spring semester. Last day for
adding new courses, Late reg
istration ends.
Monday, Jan. 23 — Last day for
students who registered during
late registration to pay fees.
Tuesday, Jan. 31 — Last day for
dropping courses with no re
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applying for May degrees.
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dropping courses with no penal
ty (Q-drop). (Dean’s permission
required).
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layed and late registration of
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1983 semester, can be obtained
at the student’s major depart
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readmitted graduate studenu
card packets are with their
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partments.
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for failure to pay fees or who
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day. Jan. 17. from 8 a.m. to5
p.m. After Jan. 1 7, all feeswilllx
collected at the Fiscal Depart
ment in the Coke Building. Any
student who registers or pays
fees after the first class day ohlie
spring semester, Jan. 16, willbe
assessed a late fee of $10.
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