Annals of emergency medicine
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This study was conducted to assess the outcome of patients suffering multiple injuries from blunt trauma who were transferred to a Level I trauma center for definitive care after special diagnostic or treatment procedures (DTPs) or after a simple delay of four hours at a primary receiving hospital. ⋯ Early versus delayed decision to transfer patients with blunt trauma did not appear to influence overall outcome. These data suggest that minor delays in recognizing the need to transfer patients with blunt injuries to a trauma center for definitive care may be offset by rapid, skilled transfer and highly specialized trauma care and support the hypothesis that regional trauma center care after initial evaluation and resuscitation elsewhere can be effective even when the timing of transfer is not ideal.