Preventable injury deaths: identifying opportunities to improve timeliness and reach of emergency healthcare services in New Zealand.
Traumatic injury is a leading cause of premature death and health loss in New Zealand. Outcomes following injury are very time sensitive, and timely access of critically injured patients to advanced hospital trauma care services can improve injury survival.



This cross-sectional study will investigate the epidemiology and geographic location of prehospital fatal injury deaths in relation to access to prehospital emergency services for the first time in New Zealand.



Electronic Coronial case files for the period 2008-2012 will be reviewed to identify cases of prehospital fatal injury across New Zealand.



The project will combine epidemiological and geospatial methods in three research phases: (1) identification, enumeration, description and geocoding of prehospital injury deaths using existing electronic injury data sets; (2) geocoding of advanced hospital-level care providers and emergency land and air ambulance services to determine the current theoretical service coverage in a specified time period and (3) synthesising of information from phases I and II using geospatial methods to determine the number of prehospital injury deaths located in areas without timely access to advanced-level hospital care.



The findings of this research will identify opportunities to optimise access to advanced-level hospital care in New Zealand to increase the chances of survival from serious injury. The resulting epidemiological and geospatial analyses will represent an advancement of knowledge for injury prevention and health service quality improvement towards better patient outcomes following serious injury in New Zealand and similar countries.
Injury Prevention Research Unit, Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, Dunedin School of Medicine, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Rebbecca
R
Lilley
Section of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Population Health, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
Bridget
B
Kool
Injury Prevention Research Unit, Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, Dunedin School of Medicine, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Gabrielle
G
Davie
Injury Prevention Research Unit, Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, Dunedin School of Medicine, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Brandon
B
de Graaf
Section of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Population Health, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
Shanthi N
SN
Ameratunga
Te Kupenga Hauora Māori, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
Pararangi
P
Reid
Trauma Services, Auckland District Health Board, Auckland, New Zealand.
Ian
I
Civil
St John, Mt Wellington, Auckland, New Zealand.|Department of Paramedicine, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand.
Bridget
B
Dicker
Department of Epidemiology, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, USA.|Biostatistics and Epidemiology Department, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA.
Charles C
CC
Branas
D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009520:New Zealand / Q000453:epidemiology; D058996:Quality Improvement / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D015996:Survival Rate; D015599:Trauma Severity Indices; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000401:mortality* / Q000628:therapy