Pre-hospital Triage of Accident Victims: A Poorly Performed Tool

(Image: Pixabay CC0) - Nearly half of the people who should be referred quickly to a trauma center would fall under the radar of the triage method used in Quebec The prehospital trauma triage protocol used in Quebec correctly detects only 57% of people who should be transported quickly to a trauma center. And it's mainly the elderly who fall under the radar of this tool, reports a research team from Laval University in a study published by the Journal of Surgical Research . These researchers, attached to Vitam - Centre de recherche en santé durable and the Centre de recherche du CHU de Québec - Université Laval, arrive at these findings after studying the cases of 822 patients transported to an emergency room in the Quebec City area between November 2016 and March 2017. These people had suffered a trauma, most often as a result of a fall (65% of cases) or an accident involving a motor vehicle (22% of cases). Two-thirds of these individuals were 55 years or older. In Quebec, when paramedics arrive at the scene of an accident, they assess the victim's condition using the Quebec Prehospital Trauma Scale," said study leader éric Mercier, a professor at the Faculty of Medicine at Laval University and an emergency physician and trauma team leader at the Enfant-Jusus Hospital in Quebec City.éric Mercier, professor at the Faculty of Medicine of Laval University and emergency physician and team leader in trauma at the Enfant-Jésus Hospital of the CHU de Québec.