Table 4.
Inter-hospital transfer characteristics and receiving-hospital outcomes, by injury intent (N = 20,292)
| Intentional (N = 4,774) |
Unintentional (N = 15,518) |
P-value | SMD | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mechanism of injury, N (%) | < 0.001 | 3.079 | ||
| Traumatic injury | ||||
| Transportation incidents | 5 (0.1) | 8,524 (54.9) | ||
| Falls / Slip down | 481 (10.1) | 4,197 (27.0) | ||
| Blunt trauma | 173 (3.6) | 436 (2.8) | ||
| Stab/Penetrating trauma | 344 (7.2) | 111 (0.7) | ||
| Machine-related injury | 0 (0) | 364(2.3) | ||
| Non-traumatic injury | ||||
| Thermal injury | 29 (0.6) | 451 (2.9) | ||
| Hanging/Strangling | 611 (12.8) | 19 (0.1) | ||
| Drowning/Suffocation | 26 (0.5) | 505 (3.3) | ||
| Drug intoxication | 3,097 (64.9) | 621 (4.0) | ||
| Others | 1 (0.0) | 82 (0.5) | ||
| Missing | 7 (0.1) | 208 (1.3) | ||
| Reason for Transfer, N (%) | < 0.001 | 0.402 | ||
| Lack of general ward, ICU beds | 558 (11.7) | 992 (6.4) | ||
| Inability to provide care or surgery | 406 (8.5) | 1,474 (9.5) | ||
| Transfer to a higher-level hospital | 2,702 (56.6) | 6,887 (44.4) | ||
| Transfer to a lower-level hospital | 73 (1.5) | 576 (3.7) | ||
| Transfer due to patient circumstances | 1,007 (21.1) | 5,532 (35.7) | ||
| Others | 28 (0.6) | 57 (0.4) | ||
| ED disposition at the receiving hospital, N (%) | < 0.001 | 0.235 | ||
| Survival-to-discharge | 592 (12.4) | 892 (5.7) | ||
| Survival-to-transfer | 191(4.0) | 679 (4.4) | ||
| Survival-to-admission | 3,785 (79.3) | 13,314 (85.8) | ||
| Death in the ED | 206 (4.3) | 633 (4.1) | ||
|
ICU admission among admitted patients, N (%) |
2,492 (65.8) | 7,722 (58.0) | < 0.001 | 0.162 |
| Result after admission, N (%) | (N = 3,785) | (N = 13,314) | 0.807 | 0.005 |
| Survival to discharge | 3,276 (86.6) | 11,503 (86.4) | ||
| Death | 509 (13.4) | 1,811 (13.6) | ||
| Result after ED, N (%) | 0.202 | 0.030 | ||
| Survival | 3,868 (81.0) | 12,395 (79.9) | ||
| Death | 715 (15.0) | 2,444 (15.7) | ||
| Transfer to other institution | 191 (4.0) | 679 (4.4) |
ED = Emergency department; SMD = Standardized mean difference