The Regional Australian Hospital Perspective on Time-to-CT and Associated Outcomes in Trauma Patients: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Aim: This study aims to assess the relationship between the time-to-CT and outcomes in trauma patients presenting to a regional Australian hospital. Method: This study is a retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data to review the relationship between time-to-CT and the outcomes of mortality, length of stay, and intrahospital transfer for trauma patients presenting to a single regional Australian hospital between January 2000 and July 2022. Results: There were 127 trauma patients who met the inclusion criteria during the study period. Comparing patients who had a CT performed within 1 h of arrival to patients those who had a CT performed more than 1 h after arrival, there was no statistically significant difference in mortality rate (8.0% vs. 7.7%, p = 1.000), and no statistically significant difference in length of stay (4.5 days vs. 3 days, p = 0.496). Increased age was associated with an increased risk of mortality while First Nations people were found to have a shorter length of stay within hospital. Conclusions: In this cohort study, the time-to-CT was not predictive of increased mortality risk in trauma patients presenting to a regional hospital. The time-to-CT in this regional hospital was comparable to published data from level I trauma centres in Australia. What does this paper add to the literature? This paper is the first to look at the impact of time-to-CT in the regional Australian setting.