As a regional trauma center project, the emergency medical system for major trauma patients is changing in Korea. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of changes in the trauma patient
care system on the duration of stay in the emergency room(ER) of trauma patients. We retrospectively
reviewed the medical records of trauma patients over 18 years old who visited the emergency room of Jeju
National university hospital for 40 months. During the study period, there were 12,550 patients in the
‘conventional’ group and 12,004 patients in the ‘trauma surgery’ group. There was no statistical significance
between the two groups in length of stay in ER(168 min vs 165 min) (p = 0.355). However, the operation
of the ‘trauma team’ had a statistically significant reduction in the length of stay in ER by 27 minutes
(95% confidence interval [CI] = –42.40 to –12.58). In order to reduce the length of stay in ER of
trauma patients, it is necessary to establish systemized trauma patient care system in ER.