Abstract
Background
Standardization of trauma centers improves quality of care, yet that comes with financial challenges. The decision to designate a trauma center typically focuses on access, quality of care, and the needs of the local community, but less often considers the financial viability of the trauma center. A level-1 trauma center was relocated in 2017 and this presented an opportunity to compare financial data at two separate locations in the same city.
Methods
A retrospective review was performed on the local trauma registry and billing database in all patients aged ≥19 years on the trauma service before and after the move.
Results
3041 patients were included (pre-move: 1151; post-move: 1890). After the move, patients were older (9.5 years), and more were females (14.9%) and white (16.5%). Increases in blunt injuries (7.6%), falls (14.8%), and motor vehicle accidents (1.7%) were observed after the move. After the move, patients were less likely to be discharged home (6.5%) and more likely to go to a skilled nursing facility (3%) or inpatient rehabilitation (5.5%). Post-move more patients had Medicare (12.6%) or commercial (8.5%) insurance and charges per patient decreased by $2,833, while charges collected per patient increased by $2425. Patients were seen from a broader distribution of zip codes post-move.
Discussion
Relocating a trauma center did improve financial viability for this institution. Future studies should consider the impact on the surrounding community and other trauma centers.
Level of evidence
Level IV.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
