title: Developing a methodology to improve the allocation of specialized health resources for acutely injured persons.
abstract: Inappropriate triage following acute injury may result in misallocation of specialized health resources, increased health care costs, reduced or delayed access to care, and increased death and disability. Although triage criteria have been developed, they vary widely, and inappropriate triage rates are high (50% - 85%). The purpose of this project was to evaluate the ability of decision tree induction to predict need for specialized trauma resources in acutely injured persons. We considered any person who was admitted to the trauma center's ICU or died prior to being admitted to the ICU as needing specialized trauma resources.
authors.affiliation: Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Talbert
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Talbert
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D003663:Decision Trees; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D040841:Resource Allocation / Q000379:methods*; D014193:Trauma Centers / Q000458:organization & administration*; D014218:Triage / Q000379:methods*; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000145:classification*