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Thu Mar 6 14:38:25 GMT 2008

All,

I need some advice. I am trying to compare our institution's trauma results to a reference standard or a national trauma standard. My statistician used the Major Trauma Outcome Study to calculate z, w and m scores (J Trauma. <javascript:AL_get(this, 'jour', 'J Trauma.');>  1990 Nov;30(11):1356-65). The study was  conducted from 1982 to 1987 using 139 North American hospitals submitting demographic, etiologic, injury severity and outcome data from over 80,000 trauma patients. Our scores were favorable, but I have concerns.

My question is as the Major Trauma Outcome Study was done in the mid to late 80's and published in 1990, is this study still acceptable for comparison or is there another more recent study for comparison? How is everyone else comparing themselves to this standard, and if not how are you doing comparing yourself, and if not why are centers not comparing? 

As we are pushing for ACS COT verification this year at this institution, I want to be sure that our trauma care is meeting the national standard, but need some guidance as to what others are doing and what standard are they using. Our worry is that we are missing something that we should be doing.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I hope that this is not too elementary of an e-mail.

Thank you for your time as any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Marc R. Matthews, MD 
Medical Director, Trauma Services, Maricopa Medical Center 
Medical Director, Respiratory Care Services, Maricopa Medical Center 
Associate Director, Arizona Burn Center, Maricopa Medical Center 

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