Trauma careIntegrating military, civilian trauma care systems could prevent up to 20% of U.S. trauma deaths
The leading cause of death for Americans under the age of 46 is trauma — a disabling or life-threatening physical injury that results from an event such as a motor vehicle crash, gun violence, or fall. In 2013, trauma cost approximately $670 billion in medical care expenses and lost productivity. Of the 147,790 U.S. trauma deaths in 2014, as many as 20 percent — or about 30,000 — may have been preventable after injury with optimal trauma care. Mass casualty incidents and increasing foreign and domestic threats to homeland security lend urgency to the translation of wartime lessons to civilian trauma systems, says a new report.
Across the current military and civilian trauma care systems, the quality of trauma care varies greatly depending on when and where an individual is injured, placing lives unnecessarily at risk, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NAS). Mass casualty incidents and increasing foreign and domestic threats to homeland security lend urgency to the translation of wartime lessons to civilian trauma systems, said the committee that carried out the study and wrote the report.The NAS says that the White House should lead the integration of military and civilian trauma care to establish a national trauma care system and set an aim to achieve zero preventable deaths after injury. In addition, Congress, in consultation with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, should help ensure that prehospital care, such as emergency medical services, are included as a seamless component of health care delivery, rather than being viewed and paid as merely transportation providers.
The leading cause of death for Americans under the age of 46 is trauma — a disabling or life-threatening physical injury that results from an event such as a motor vehicle crash, gun violence, or fall. In 2013, trauma cost approximately $670 billion in medical care expenses and lost productivity. Recognizing that the best strategy to reduce the considerable burden associated with trauma is to prevent injuries from occurring in the first place, the delivery of optimal trauma care when injuries do occur is a critical means of preventing unnecessary death and disability. Of the 147,790 U.S. trauma deaths in 2014, as many as 20 percent — or about 30,000 — may have been preventable after injury with optimal trauma care, the committee said.
Significant advances in trauma care have developed over the last decade in response to the large number of U.S. casualties during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The percentage of wounded service members who died of their injuries in Afghanistan decreased by nearly 50 percent between 2005 and 2013. Those successes are to be heralded but need to be improved upon and sustained, the committee said. Nearly 1,000 service members who lost their lives on the battlefield between 2001 and 2011 died of potentially survivable injuries.
