A Comparison of Injury Severity Score and Disposition Between Pediatric and Adult Patients Transported to a Rural Trauma Center Via Helicopter

Some considerations when utilizing HAA are the risk of helicopter crash and variability of cost.1,2 For these reasons, the rate of overtriage, and thus the potential for inappropriate utilization of HAA, has been explored in the trauma literature. 3 There is evidence pointing toward the benefit of standardized triage to HAA in the field. 4 Knowing that the literature shows the pediatric population is at a higher risk of overtriage in the urban setting, 3 our team aimed to explore this risk in a rural setting. Variables in the data set included: age, sex, injury mechanism, ISS, disposition, mortality, and hospital length of stay (LOS). Disposition was grouped to homegroup (patients discharged to home, psychiatric care, or a correctional facility) versus extended care (patients discharged to a skilled nursing facility, inpatient rehabilitation, home health services, long-term acute care facility).