ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Major Trauma Code 1 (TC1) activations require significant resources to provide immediate treatment to potentially unstable, critically ill, patients. The Cribari Matrix Method (CMM) and Need For Trauma Intervention (NFTI) are two ways to determine over and undertriage in trauma. We studied the overtriage rate at a community level 1 trauma center using these two methods to determine the efficacy of the triage criteria in TC1 activations. METHOD: A retrospective review of all patients in the trauma registry of a level 1 American College of Surgeons trauma program from May to October 2021 was performed. Overtriage rates were determined using CMM and NFTI criteria. RESULTS: The overtriage rate of 552 activations using CMM alone was 73%. CMM combined with NFTI resulted in a 56% overtriage rate. CONCLUSION: The Cribari method can be used to determine the effectiveness of a system's trauma code 1 criteria but cannot delineate which criteria should be reviewed.
