Integrated Trauma System

Traumatic injury accounts for 11% of worldwide mortality and is one of the leading causes of disability (Sharma, Krug and Lozano, 2000). Trauma affects society on not only a physical level, but also on an economical and psychological level (Lyons et al., 2010). Superior trauma care entails a resourced and integrated trauma system. The aim of a trauma system is to enable the timely treatment of a critically injured patient, where resources are readily available for their optimal management and rehabilitation (Celso et al., 2006). Once the critically unstable patient has arrived at the trauma centre, trauma systems within the hospital, such as trauma teams, are activated to provide systematic clinical assessment and ongoing patient care to promote the patients outcome (Liberman et al., 2005; Teixaeira et al., 2007). Effective initial assessment, quality and resuscitation of critically ill patients require the use of a multidisciplinary trauma team led by both medical and nursing staff (Cole and Crichton, 2006).

Trauma triage systems look to recognise and deliver fast acting care for some of the most critically injured patients, while ensuring less critically injured patients that require only basic care are

It is reasonable that a response appropriate to trauma activation is one that provides the optimum patient care but has a minimal impact on other patients within the hospital and resources available (Haukoos et al., 2011). To evade overtriage of the trauma team, which is regularly cancelled after initial assessment of the patient has been performed, some hospitals have adopted methods which aim to limit the impact of trauma calls on the rest of the hospital, such as a system known as a two-tier activation system (Rehn et al.,