Ws. Copes et al., LINKING DATA FROM NATIONAL TRAUMA AND REHABILITATION REGISTRIES, The journal of trauma, injury, infection, and critical care, 40(3), 1996, pp. 428-436
Objective: To evaluate the feasibility of retrospectively creating a d
ata base useful in trauma systems evaluations. Materials and Methods:
Records for 375 patients in both the Major Trauma Outcome Study and th
e Uniform Data System for Medical Rehabilitation were linked to create
an injury-through-rehabilitation data base, including patients from f
our impairment groups: traumatic brain injury (TBI); spinal cord injur
y-paraplegic complete (SCI-PARA) and quadriplegic complete (SCI-QUAD);
and hip fracture ((HIP-FX). Measurements and Blain Results: The avera
ge ages (25.1 years SCI-QUAD, 72.6 years HIP-PX); Injury Severity Scor
e (10.2 HIP-FX, 31.7 SCI-PARA); Revised Trauma Score (5.9 TBI, 7.8 HIP
-FX); and acute care lengths of stay (13.3 days HIP-FX, 24.2 days TBI)
varied substantially over the four groups, On average, patients spent
from approximately 20 days (HIP-FX) to nearly 100 days (SCI-QUAD) in
rehabilitation, Functional gains during rehabilitation were primarily
in motor skills, but TBI patients also made substantial cognitive gain
s, Nearly 90% of TBI and SCI patients were discharged to their homes;
the percentage of HIP-FX patients discharged to their homes, however,
was lower (74%), Across all impairment groups, more patients lived wit
h their relatives after rather than before injury, The correlation bet
ween a summary Major Trauma Outcome Study-Functional Independence Meas
ure assessed at acute rare discharge and the complete Uniform Data Sys
tem for medical Rehabilitation-Functional Independence Measure assesse
d on admission to rehabilitation was significant for all study patient
s and for each impairment group except SCT-PARA. Conclusions: Linking
records to create the study data base was arduous and could not be pra
ctically accomplished on a large scale or on a continuing basis, Becau
se of the growing emphases on trauma system evaluations and outcomes b
eyond survival at acute care discharge, we recommend the routine inclu
sion of rehabilitation data in hospital-based trauma registries.