title: Trauma care in Italy: evidence of in-hospital preventable deaths.
abstract: The quality of a trauma system can be assessed by the rate of preventable deaths. A random selected sample of 110 trauma patients was examined using both clinical and autopsy data. The assessors were asked the following question: If this patient had sustained the accident in front of the hospital in a normal working day, might death have been prevented? Death was found to be unavoidable in 61 cases, in 25 cases death was classified potentially preventable; 11 cases were classified as clearly preventable death. The main failures of treatment were identified as errors and delays during the first phases of in-hospital assessment and care. An improvement in the pre-hospital phase will be almost useless if the quality of the definitive in-hospital management is not addressed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesia and Intensive Care, Hospital of Parma-USL, Italy.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Stocchetti
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pagliarini
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gennari
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Baldi
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Banchini
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Campari
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bacchi
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zuccoli
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D006259:Craniocerebral Trauma / Q000401:mortality; D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D000860:Hypoxia / Q000401:mortality; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012494:Sampling Studies; D012769:Shock / Q000401:mortality; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000401:mortality* / Q000628:therapy