BODYCAST - THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE CSOT

Trauma care systems in Canada

By John B. Kortbeek and Richard Buckley
Reprinted with permission from Injury, Int. J. Care Injured, 34 (2003), 635-663.

Abstract
Injury is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in Canada and health care costs associated with injury and trauma are significant. Trauma systems and standards have been defined by the Trauma Association of Canada. A National Trauma Registry has also been introduced, which has become an important resource for measuring the impact of this condition. The registry has also been an important tool for trauma centre quality control and assessment. The strengths of organized Canadian trauma care are described, as are current challenges.

Canada has a population of 30 million people. It occupies the second largest land mass in the world after Russia, totaling 3,849,674 square miles (9,970,610 km square). Canada comprises 10 provinces and three territories. The territories occupy huge northern areas, but have populations of less than 50,000 each. The bulk of the Canadian population is concentrated in the south, within several hundred kilometers of the U.S. border. The majority of Canadians (>75%) reside in urban areas. The widely dispersed rural population creates great challenges in providing accessible emergency and trauma care. Many rural areas have small primary-care hospitals staffed by registered nurses (RNs) and family practitioners. In remote locations, only nursing stations are available. Severely injured patients referred to tertiary trauma centers often face delays of many hours and may require transport over distances of hundreds (and often more than thousands) of kilometers (American College of Surgeons, 1999; Trauma Association of Canada Guidelines)

This abstract is a portion of the article which appears in the Winter 2005 issue of BodyCast.  
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