Prolonged Emergency Department Stay at Referring Facilities: A Poor Trauma Performance Improvement Tool.

BACKGROUND Delays in the transfers of injured patients are perceived to increase morbidity and mortality and drive initiatives to limit the emergency department length of stay (LOS) at referring facilities (RF). RF LOS >4 hours is used for performance improvement (PI) with a large review burden with few improvement opportunities. METHODS A statewide trauma registry 2013-2018 was used. Descriptive and inferential statistics including logistic regression were used to evaluate nongeriatric adult patients with ED LOS 4 hours was not identified. Increased survival over time is explained by early transfers of high mortality patients. Our data support existing efficient statewide transfers and recommend PI review of transfer patients with abnormal GCS-M and SBP in a narrower timeframe.