J Trauma
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Multicenter Study Clinical Trial
Preventable trauma deaths in The Netherlands--a prospective multicenter study.
The data of all trauma fatalities occurring in 12 Dutch hospitals during a period of 1 year were reviewed for management errors and preventable deaths by a panel of five surgeons trained in trauma care. Management errors occurred in 38% of the fatalities. There was a significantly higher percentage of management errors in small general hospitals (72%) than in large general (29%) and in university hospitals (34%). ⋯ A significantly higher preventable death rate occurred in small general hospitals (48%), than in large general (14%) and university hospitals (19%). From these results, it can be concluded that management errors and preventable deaths are general phenomena occurring in any hospital. However, they occur significantly more frequently in hospitals not especially equipped to manage severely injured patients.