Interhospital Transfer of Acute Trauma Patients: How Long Does it Take and how is the Time Spent?

Abstract

Background: Trauma patients in rural areas are frequently transferred to regional trauma centers for expeditious evaluation and management of potentially life-threatening injuries. We sought to characterize how long the process takes, once it has begun, for acutely injured patients to be transferred from emergency departments (EDs) of referring hospitals to trauma centers and how the time is spent.