Injury Assessment of Individuals Wounded in the Lushan Earthquake and the Emergency Department Workload: A Corresponding Correlation Study

Disaster Med Public Health Prep. 2022 Feb;16(1):29-32. doi: 10.1017/dmp.2020.231. Epub 2020 Sep 22.

Abstract

Objective: In this study, we aimed to evaluate the correlation between the trauma score of individuals wounded in the Lushan earthquake and emergency workload for treatment. We further created a trauma score-emergency workload calculation model.

Methods: We included data from patients wounded in the Lushan earthquake and treated at West China Hospital, Sichuan University. We calculated scores per the following models separately: Revised Trauma Score (RTS), Prehospital Index (PHI), Circulation Respiration Abdominal Movement Speech (CRAMS), Therapeutic Intervention Scoring System (TISS-28), and Nursing Activities Score (NAS). We assessed the association between values for CRAMS, PHI, and RTS and those for TISS-28 and NAS. Subsequently, we built a trauma score-emergency workload calculation model to quantitative workload estimation.

Results: Significant correlations were observed for all pairs of trauma scoring models with emergency workload scoring models. TISS-28 score was significantly associated with PHI score and RTS; however, no significant correlation was observed between the TISS-28 score and CRAMS score.

Conclusions: CRAMS, PHI, and RTS were consistent in evaluating the injury condition of wounded individuals; TISS-28 and NAS scores were consistent in evaluating the required treatment workload. Dynamic changes in emergency workload in unit time were closely associated with wounded patient visits.

Keywords: earthquake; emergency; trauma score; workload score; wounded.

MeSH terms

  • China
  • Correlation of Data
  • Earthquakes*
  • Emergency Service, Hospital
  • Humans
  • Workload