Comparison of trauma care structures, processes and outcomes between the English National Health Service and Quebec, Canada.

BACKGROUND: Comparisons across trauma systems are key to identifying opportunities to improve trauma care. We aimed to compare trauma service structures, processes and outcomes between the English National Health Service (NHS) and the province of Quebec, Canada. METHODS: We conducted a multicentre cohort study including admissions of patients aged older than 15 years with major trauma to major trauma centres (MTCs) from 2014/15 to 2016/17. We compared structures descriptively, and time to MTC and time in the emergency department (ED) using Wilcoxon tests. We compared mortality, and hospital and intensive care unit (ICU) length of stay (LOS) using multilevel logistic regression with propensity score adjustment, stratified by body region of the worst injury. RESULTS: The sample comprised 36 337 patients from the NHS and 6484 patients from Quebec. Structural differences in the NHS included advanced prehospital medical teams (v. "scoop and run" in Quebec), helicopter transport (v. fixed-wing aircraft) and trauma team leaders. The median time to an MTC was shorter in Quebec than in the NHS for direct transports (1 h v. 1.5 h, p < 0.001) but longer for transfers (2.5 h v. 6 h, p < 0.001). Time in the ED was longer in Quebec than in the NHS (6.5 h v. 4.0 h, p < 0.001). The adjusted odds of death were higher in Quebec for head injury (odds ratio [OR] 1.28, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.09-1.51) but lower for thoracoabdominal injuries (OR 0.69, 95% CI 0.52-0.90). The adjusted median hospital LOS was longer for spine, torso and extremity injuries in the NHS than in Quebec, and the median ICU LOS was longer for spine injuries. CONCLUSION: We observed significant differences in the structure of trauma care, delays in access and risk-adjusted outcomes between Quebec and the NHS. Future research should assess associations between structures, processes and outcomes to identify opportunities for quality improvement.

Adherence to Clinical Practice Guideline Recommendations on Low-Value Injury Care: A Multicenter Retrospective Cohort Study.

OBJECTIVES: Low-value clinical practices have been identified as one of the most important areas of excess healthcare spending. Nevertheless, there is a knowledge gap on the scale of this problem in injury care. We aimed to identify clinical practice guideline (CPG) recommendations pertaining to low-value injury care, estimate how frequently they are used in practice, and evaluate interhospital variations in their use. METHODS: We identified low-value clinical practices from internationally recognized CPGs. We conducted a retrospective cohort study using data from a Canadian trauma system (2014-2019) to calculate frequencies and assess interhospital variations. RESULTS: We identified 29 low-value practices. Fourteen could be measured using trauma registry data. The 3 low-value clinical practices with the highest absolute and relative frequencies were computed tomography (CT) in adults with minor head injury (n = 5591, 24%), cervical spine CT (n = 2742, 31%), and whole-body CT in minor or single-system trauma (n = 530, 32%). We observed high interhospital variation for decompressive craniectomy in diffuse traumatic brain injury. Frequencies and interhospital variations were low for magnetic resonance imaging, intracranial pressure monitoring, inferior vena cava filter use, and surgical management of blunt abdominal injuries. CONCLUSIONS: We observed evidence of poor adherence to CPG recommendations on low-value CT imaging and high practice variation for decompressive craniectomy. Results suggest that adherence to recommendations for the 10 other low-value practices is high. These data can be used to advance the research agenda on low-value injury care and inform the development of interventions targeting reductions in healthcare overuse in this population.

Economic evaluation of intrahospital clinical practices in injury care: protocol for a 10-year systematic review.

INTRODUCTION: Underuse of high-value clinical practices and overuse of low-value practices are major sources of inefficiencies in modern healthcare systems. Injuries are second only to cardiovascular disease in terms of acute care costs but data on the economic impact of clinical practices for injury admissions are lacking. This study aims to summarise evidence on the economic value of intrahospital clinical practices for injury care. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: We will perform a systematic review to identify research articles in economic evaluation of intrahospital clinical practices in acute injury care. We will search MEDLINE and databases such as Embase, Web of Science, NHS Economic Evaluation Database, Cochrane CENTRAL, BIOSIS and CINAHL for randomised or non-randomised controlled trials and observational studies using a combination of keywords and controlled vocabulary. We will consider the following outcomes relative to economic evaluations: incremental cost-effectiveness ratio, incremental cost-utility ratio, incremental net health benefit, incremental net monetary benefit (iNMB) and incremental cost-benefit ratio. Pairs of independent reviewers will evaluate studies that meet eligibility criteria and extract data from included articles using an electronic data extraction form. All outcomes will be converted into iNMB. We will report iNMB for practices classified by type of practice (hospitalisation, consultation, diagnostic, therapeutic-surgical, therapeutic-drugs, therapeutic-other). Results obtained with a ceiling ratio of $50 000 per quality-adjusted life year gained for identified clinical practices will be summarised by charting forest plots. In line with Cochrane recommendations for systematic reviews of economic evaluations, meta-analyses will not be conducted. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethics approval is not required as original data will not be collected. This study will summarise existing evidence on the economic value of clinical practices in injury care. Results will be used to advance knowledge on value-based care for injury admissions and will be disseminated through a peer-reviewed article, international scientific meetings and clinical and healthcare quality associations.