Trauma network for severely injured patients

Survival after severe trauma may depend on a structured chain of care from the management at the scene of trauma to hospital care and rehabilitation. In the USA, the trauma system is organized according to a pre-hospital triage by paramedics to facilitate the admission of patients to tertiary trauma centres. In France, trauma patients are transported to the most suitable facility, according to the on-scene triage by an emergency physician. Because French hospital's resources become scarce and expensive, the access to all techniques of resuscitation after severe trauma is restricted to tertiary trauma centres, at the expense of prolonged duration of transfer to these centres with a possible impact on mortality. The Northern French Alps Emergency Network created a regional trauma network system in 2008. This organization was based upon the interplay between the resources of each hospital participating to the network and the categorization of trauma severity at the scene. A regional registry allows the assessment of trauma system, which has included 3,690 severe trauma patients within the past 3 years. Bystanders, medical call dispatch centres, and interdisciplinary trauma team should form a structured and continuous chain of care to allocate each severe trauma patient to the best place of treatment.