Abstract Background: Centralizing and specializing in Danish health care is ongoing. Around the country Mobile Emergency Care Units (MECU) are introduced during the past years. Pre-hospital triage is important to evaluate at which trauma level the severely injured patients must be received. The aim of our study was to evaluate changes in the severity in adult traffic related high injury traumas admitted to a level 2 trauma center at Odense University Hospital, Svendborg Hospital (OUH-SH) during the last decade and before and after the introduction of the local MECU through the years 2007-2009. Methods: The study was a retrospective study covering an eleven-year period from 2002-2012. All admissions from traffic accidents to OUH, SH were extracted from the hospital inpatient registry for patients aged 18+. The study was performed as a pilot study including only patients born 1st-6th in every month. Based on clinical record reviews and radiology findings, we decided if the patient was Multi Trauma (MT) defined as received by trauma response team and/or CT trauma scanned. Diagnoses were evaluated and maximum Abbreviated Injury Score (mAIS) was assigned dividing patients in severe injured with mAIS ≥ 3 and less injured with mAIS < 3. Data was compared as proportions and confidence intervals and furthermore data before and after the launching of the MECU was dichotomized. Results: A total of 363 traffic injury patients were identified. Five were undeterminable in MT status and 137 non-MT patients were excluded, giving 221 adult MT cases for analysis. Forty-one patients (19%, CI: 14-24) had mAIS ≥ 3. Percentages varied with year from 0-29% with no up- or downwards trend throughout the decade. Proportion of mAIS ≥ 3 in the years before implementing the MECU in Svendborg was 17.1% (CI: 10.2-24.0) versus 23.9% (CI: 11.1-36.7) in the years after the implementation (p = 0.32). The admission rate on MT’s dropped from 24 to 15 and for mAIS ≥ 3 from 4 to 3.5. Conclusions: There was no significant change in the proportion of severely injured patients admitted to this level 2 trauma center during the last decade or after implementation of the local MECU in this study. However, a reduction in admission rate for MT’s might suggest a reduction in overtriage. Keywords: Multi trauma; Severity of trauma; Level trauma center; Medical emergency care unit; Prehospital emergency car
