Role of fast passage for patients to enter emergency department in rescuing and triaging traumatic casualties from the bullet train accident occurred at Wenzhou station on 23 July 2011 / 中华急诊医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To determine the effect of fast passage for patients' access to the emergency department of hospital on rescuing and triaging the traumatic casualties referred from the site of accident by collision between two bullet trains occurred at Wenzhou station on 23 July 2011 in order to accumulate experience of treating large number of traumatized casualties happened in a major accident or disaster.Methods A retrospective study was carried out to collect the data including the different courses of treatment for various types of injury in casualties and the length of stay of traumatized patients with different degrees of severity in the emergency department after casualties entered into the emergency department of hospital via fast passage.Results There were 136 traumatic casualties referred to hospital within 72 hours after the bullet train accident occurred at Wenzhou station.The average length of stay of patients with uncomplicated single injury in the hospital was 27min,and the average length of stay of 108 patients with multiple injuries in the emergency department was 62 min.In last year,the annually average length of stay of casualties in emergency department was 50 min longer when there was no fast passage available for patient to enter into.Conclusions The fast passage for casualties entering into emergency department not only guarantees the traumatized patients rescued in no time after bullet train accident but also shortens the length of stay in the Emergency Department.