Receiving care facility and outcome differences for victims of severe violent injuries

Objective. Each year millions of people die resulting from violence. Our objective was to evaluate anddescribe the demographic characteristics, access to trauma center care, mortality andmorbidity outcomes of victims of severe violence in Pennsylvania. Methods. This was a cross-sectional population-based observational study. ICD-9-CM diagnostic codes were utilized to define acute injuries; severe injury was defined by an Injury Severity Score (ISS) greater than 15. Descriptive statistics andconfidence intervals were used to present group characteristics. For categorical variables, chi-square testing andFisher's exact testing were used to assess associations, andthe Odds Ratio was used as the measure of strength of association. For all tests statistical significance was set at the 0.05 level. Results. A total of 8,977 patients with ISS > 15 were included; out of which 663 cases resulted from violence. Three hundred andforty seven (52.3%) were admitted to non-trauma center hospitals (NTC); Three hundred-and...