Crashes Get a Closer Look with Trauma Registry
Idaho policymakers, administrators and others will soon have a powerful new evaluative tool to judge the impacts of crashes, including those involving unbelted occupants.
As the Idaho Trauma Registry (ITR), moves into the second year of pilot hospital data collection, Idaho is one step closer to having statewide information on serious injuries treated in Idaho hospitals. The registry, established by Idaho Code §57-2003, will collect the statewide data needed to analyze the incidence, severity, causes, costs, and outcomes of trauma in Idaho. The Idaho Hospital Association contracts with, and receives funding from, the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, Bureau Emergency Medical Services for developing and implementing the ITR.
Records are linked, where applicable, across vehicle collision reports, pre-hospital patient care reports, hospital trauma records and death certificates to provide a complete picture of the circumstances, treatment and outcomes of an injury incident. The information collected, linked, analyzed and distributed by ITR will be useful for emergency medical systems improvements, injury prevention, resource allocation and research.
For the first time in Idaho, when all acute care hospitals begin reporting trauma cases at the end of the pilot project, enhanced information will be available for determining: 1) out-of-hospital performance (e.g. outcomes by field procedure tracked); 2) distribution of injuries (e.g. by geographic area, by age and gender); 3) injury severity (e.g. versus outcome); 4) cause of injury (e.g. motor vehicle injury severity versus length of hospital stay, versus safety restraint use); 5) cost of injuries (e.g. hospital charges by safety equipment use status, hospital charges by injury severity); and 6) trends (e.g. injury rates by geographic area over time).
For further information contact:
Ginger Floerchinger-Franks, Dr.P.H.
Director
Idaho Trauma Registry
615 North Seventh Street
P.O. Box 1278
Boise, ID 83702
Phone: (208) 338-5100 ext 221
www.idahotrauma.org