Trauma care recommendations presented

Earlier this week, researchers at the Andrew Young School of Public Policy in Atlanta presented their recommendations to policy makers on how to reduce Georgia’s double-digit trauma mortality rate.

For an example of how vital a healthy trauma care network is to Georgia, think of the last year’s deadly bus crash. Six people died and dozens were injured when a bus carrying a college baseball team plunged from an Atlanta overpass to the freeway below. Experts say if the injured had not been rushed to Atlanta’s nearby Grady Memorial Hospital, the death toll would have been much higher.

Outside of the state’s metro areas saving the critically injured is often a numbers game. And who wins or loses depends primarily on how much time it takes emergency vehicles to get to and from an accident site. Among the recommendations from the school’s Georgia Health Policy Center … create a central assessment data base. Information would be used to consider among other things, a patient’s condition, as well distances. Patients would then be directed to the optimal trauma care facility within their region.

Right now, the state has 10 geographical emergency care regions. But regions can cover as few as 50 square miles or up to 27 counties. Experts estimate that by coordinating communication and transportation services, Georgia could cut its current statewide mortality rate from 20 percent to eight percent.