title: Patient influx and trauma types in a front-line hospital and a secondary referral hospital after the Wenchuan earthquake: a retrospectively comparative study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To better understand the differences of patient influx and types of trauma between front-line and referral hospitals after the Wenchuan earthquake, so as to improve the efficiency of injury management.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective and comparative study was performed in Deyang People's Hospital (a front-line hospital) and West China Hospital (a secondary referral hospital).
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 1,106 patients were admitted to the front-line hospital, and 1,775 to the secondary referral hospital. The patient flow peaked within 24 h after the quake, and decreased dramatically thereafter in the front-line hospital, while it peaked 2 days after the disaster in the referral one. Extremities were the most frequent location of all identified injuries (48.4% in the front-line hospital and 49.5% in the second-line hospital). Head and trunk injuries were more frequent in the front-line hospital than the referral hospital. Most of the deaths in the front-line hospital occurred within 24 h (6/8), whilst most in the referral hospital died more than 7 days (29/30) after the earthquake. While the total mortality in the front-line hospital was less than that in the referral hospital (0.7 vs 1.7%), the critical mortality in the former was higher (22.8 vs 9.4%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There were dramatically different features in terms of quake-related patient influx and types of injury between the epicenter and less-affected hospitals.
authors.affiliation: Department of Hospital Management & Health Policy, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, China.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wen
authors.affiliation: The Chinese Evidence-Based Medicine Center, Department of Clinical Epidemiology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, China.|Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, 1200 Main Street West, Rm. 3H57, Hamilton, Ontario, L8N 3Z5, Canada.
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Department of Thoracic & Cardiovascular Surgery, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, No.37 Guoxue Xiang, Chengdu, 610041, China. huaxiwenjin@163.com.
authors.forename: Y K
authors.initials: YK
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: The Chinese Evidence-Based Medicine Center, Department of Clinical Epidemiology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, China.
authors.forename: Y P
authors.initials: YP
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Urinary Surgery, Deyang People's Hospital, Deyang, 618000, China.
authors.forename: L P
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Quality Control and Continuing Education, Deyang People's Hospital, Deyang, 618000, China.
authors.forename: Q
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Economics and Management, Deyang People's Hospital, Deyang, 618000, China.
authors.forename: Y H
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Fei
keywords: Comparative study; Disasters; Earthquakes; Injuries; Trauma
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