Victoria’s trauma care system:  national implications for quality improvement

McDermott, Francis T; Cordner, Stephen M

doi:10.5694/j.1326-5377.2008.tb02174.x

Topics

Progressive reduction in trauma mortality and morbidity demands both peer-group and state registry evaluations, with ensuing recommendations implemented by a responsive state government trauma committee

Between 1992 and 2005, the Consultative Committee on Road Traffic Fatalities in Victoria (CCRTF) conducted several studies evaluating trauma care delivery and management in consecutive victims of road traffic accidents who had received medical treatment but subsequently died.1,2,3,4 These studies found that, between 1992 and 1997, combined preventable/potentially preventable (P + PP) death rates* among patients who died after road accidents were unaltered (* respectively, survival prospects with optimal treatment assessed as ≥ 75%, and as 25%–74%).1,5 Similarly, the frequency of errors and deficiencies contributing to death was unchanged. In 1997, recommendations were made to reduce identified problems6 and, in response, the Victorian Government established a Ministerial Task Force on Trauma and Emergency Services to implement a statewide integrated trauma system to expedite early definitive care.7

1 Department of Surgery, Alfred Hospital and Monash University, Melbourne, VIC.
2 Department of Surgery, Austin Health and University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC.
3 Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, Melbourne, VIC.
4 Department of Forensic Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC.

Correspondence: vicky@vifm.org

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