Defining futile and potentially avoidable interhospital trauma transfers.

Purpose: Interhospital transfer of critically injured patients to a major trauma service reduces preventable death in major trauma. Yet some of those transferred die without intervention. These 'futile' interhospital trauma transfers (IHTs), and other potentially avoidable IHTs place enormous stress on families of trauma victims, can delay care, and incur great cost to public health resources. This study sought to characterise these IHTs using current state guidelines for interhospital transfer.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted using our institution's trauma registry from January 2016-December 2020. All adult patients transferred to our major trauma service were analysed. Futile IHTs were defined as death or transfer to hospice care without surgical, endoscopic, or radiological intervention, and without ICU admission, within 72 h of admission. Potentially avoidable IHTs were defined as all patients discharged alive without intervention or ICU care, and secondary over-triage patients are a subset of these patients who were discharged within 72 h of admission. Patient demographics, injuries, and treatments were categorised from electronic records and analysed.

Results: Of 2,837 IHTs, seven (0.2 %) met criteria for futility. The majority were female, median age of 80 (IQR 85-75) and had a median Injury Severity Score (ISS) of 16 (IQR 25.5-11.5). By contrast, 1391 patients (49 %) were classified as potentially avoidable and 513 (18 %) were considered secondary over-triage. The majority were male, median age of 43 (IQR 62-28), and had a median ISS of 9 (IQR 13-4). Of these potentially avoidable IHTs, 984 (70.7 %) were discharged directly home.

Conclusion: Futile IHTs were infrequent, however over half of all trauma patients transferred from other hospitals were discharged without tertiary-level intervention. Trauma services should consider developing systems such as telehealth to support regional general and orthopaedic surgeons to co-manage lower risk trauma, particularly minor head and minor spinal trauma patients. This could be an integral part of safely reducing potentially avoidable IHTs and their associated costs while maintaining a low rate of preventable mortality in trauma.