Use of health care services 6 months following major trauma.

Abstract

To establish the use of health care services 6 months following major trauma, 243 blunt major trauma patients were recruited during their acute hospital stay and followed up by telephone interview at 6 months post-injury. Data collected at 6 months included health care service usage and their level of disability according to the Glasgow Outcome Scale--Extended (GOSE). Ninety-four percent of patients were living in the community at 6 months, and most (69%) reported continued use of health care services. Of those with ongoing disability, non-compensable patients were significantly more likely (OR 3.7; 95% CI, 1.6-8.6) to have ceased health care service use than compensable patients, independent of injury severity.