Major Trauma Audit National Report 2021: Improving Patient Care With National Clinical Audits

Major Trauma Audit National Report 2021

This is the eighth national report from the Major Trauma Audit (MTA). Since 2016, 26 eligible hospitals have been participating in the MTA and data have been collected on almost 33,500 major trauma patients. This report focuses on processes that impact outcomes for patients who sustained major trauma during 2021. This report also includes an emphasis on major trauma patients who required blood products between 2017 and 2021.

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Key Findings

Low falls, of less than 2 metres, continue to be the leading cause of injury in Ireland, accounting for 62% of all major traumas. The majority (55%) of major traumas occurred at home.

Recommendations To The National Office For Trauma Services

The National Office for Trauma Services, HSE, should:

collaborate with MTA /NOCA to develop/align standard key performance indicators (KPI)
review the data within with the blood product chapter to inform the provision of haematology services and stockholding within the major trauma centres (MTCs)
define rehabilitation needs assessment (RNA) and rehabilitation prescription (RP) using the approved National Office for Trauma Services (NOTS) documentation and roll out same nationally in order to collect meaningful rehabilitation data within the MTA.

Recommendations To The National Office Of Clinical Audit

MTA in the National Office of Clinical Audit (NOCA) should:

progress the completeness of key data fields such as heart rate, subsequent blood product administration and second dose of TXA administration in order to capture meaningful data
work with relevant organisations and stakeholders to support the establishment of local governance committees in order to review the data inputted with the MTA and implement quality improvement initiatives that will improve quality of care
use the information within the MTA for the development of home safety and injury prevention strategies that can reduce older persons’ risk of major trauma in the home, and disseminate same via public messaging campaigns.