Hospital resources used to treat the injured elderly at North Carolina trauma centers.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this paper is to compare the hospital resources used by elderly, adult, and pediatric patients treated in hospitals reporting to the North Carolina Trauma Registry (NCTR).


METHODS
We analyzed data on all patients entered into the NCTR from 1 January 1988 to 31 December 1990.


METHODS
The NCTR is a statewide registry of all trauma patients admitted for at least 24 hours or dead on arrival at the eight Level I and II trauma center hospitals in North Carolina.


METHODS
The total number of patients included in the study was 21,214; elderly adults included those age 65 and older (n = 2808), adults included those 15 to 64 years old (n = 15,776), and pediatric patients included those 0 to 14 years old (n = 2630).


METHODS
We examined hospital resources using three measures: overall length of hospital stay in days, intensive care unit (ICU) length of stay in days for those admitted to the ICU, and total hospital charges billed during the hospitalization.


RESULTS
Controlling for injury severity, we found that elderly adults had longer mean hospital and ICU lengths of stay and higher mean hospital charges than adults or children. Whereas only 22% of injuries to elderly adults were transportation-related, transportation injuries generated 38% of their hospital charges. Sixty-eight percent of their injuries were caused by falls, generating total hospital charges of $17.6 million, an average of 15 days in hospital stay and 9 days in ICU stay.


CONCLUSIONS
A 10% reduction in both transportation injuries and falls among the elderly could save $3.5 million in this population over 3 years.
Covington
D L
DL
Area Health Education Center, Wilmington, NC 28402.
Maxwell
J G
JG
Clancy
T V
TV
D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015984:Causality; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003363:Cost Control; D005249:Fees and Charges / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D017048:Health Care Costs; D006295:Health Resources / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D015601:Injury Severity Score; D007362:Intensive Care Units / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009104:Multiple Trauma / Q000191:economics / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy; D009657:North Carolina / Q000453:epidemiology; D012042:Registries; D015996:Survival Rate; D014193:Trauma Centers / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*