Dataset Information

Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury Care in Canada: A Survey of Canadian Centers.

ABSTRACT: Specialized centers of care for persons sustaining a traumatic spinal cord injury (tSCI) have been established in many countries, but the ideal system of care has not been defined. The objective of this study was to describe care delivery, with a focus on structures and services, for persons with tSCI in Canada. A survey was sent to 26 facilities (12 acute, 11 rehabilitation, and three integrated) from eight provinces participating in the Access to Care and Timing project. The survey included questions about: 1) care provision; 2) structural attributes and; 3) service availability. Survey completion rate was 100%. Data sources used to complete the survey were the Rick Hansen Spinal Cord Injury Registry, other hospital databases, clinical protocols, and subject matter experts. Acute and rehabilitation care provided by integrated facilities were described separately, resulting in data from 15 acute and 14 rehabilitation facilities. The number of admissions for tSCI over a 12-month period between 2009-2011 ranged from 17 to 104 (median 39), and 11 to 96 (median 32), for acute and rehabilitation facilities, respectively. Grouping of patients was reported by 8/15 acute and 10/14 rehabilitation facilities. Criteria for admission to the inpatient rehabilitation facilities varied among facilities (25 different criteria reported). Results from the survey revealed similarities in the basic structure and the provision of general services, but also some differences in the degree of specialization of care for persons with tSCI. Continued work on the impact of specialized care for both the patient and healthcare system is needed.

SUBMITTER: Noonan VK

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5653141 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury Care in Canada: A Survey of Canadian Centers.

Noonan Vanessa K VK Chan Elaine E Santos Argelio A Soril Lesley L Lewis Rachel R Singh Anoushka A Cheng Christiana L CL O'Connell Colleen C Truchon Catherine C Paquet Jérôme J Christie Sean S Ethans Karen K Tsai Eve E Ford Michael H MH Drew Brian B Linassi A Gary AG Bailey Christopher S CS Fehlings Michael G MG

Journal of neurotrauma 20170518 20

Specialized centers of care for persons sustaining a traumatic spinal cord injury (tSCI) have been established in many countries, but the ideal system of care has not been defined. The objective of this study was to describe care delivery, with a focus on structures and services, for persons with tSCI in Canada. A survey was sent to 26 facilities (12 acute, 11 rehabilitation, and three integrated) from eight provinces participating in the Access to Care and Timing project. The survey included qu ...[more]

PMID: 28367684

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Project description:BACKGROUND:To describe pre-hospital, emergency department and acute care assessment and management practices of senior clinicians for patients with acute traumatic spinal cord injury (TSCI) across Australia; and to describe clinical practice variation. METHODS:We used a descriptive, cross-sectional study design to survey senior clinicians (greater than 10?years practice in this field) caring for patients with acute TSCI. The assessment, management and referral practices of prehospital, emergency department/trauma and surgical expert clinicians, across prehospital, early hospital care, diagnostic imaging and haemodynamic management were surveyed. RESULTS:We invited 95 eligible senior clinicians; the response rate was 75%. Survey findings demonstrated overall lack of awareness or consistent use of evidence based published guidelines; many clinicians following 'locally written' or 'no particular' guideline. Practitioners were conflicted across multiple areas including patient assessment and diagnosis, treatment and transport decisions. Reported spinal immobilisation practices differed substantially, as did target setting for blood pressure; the majority of clinicians actively monitored risk of respiratory deterioration. Specialist care consult and specialist service bed availability was reported as problematic by more than one third of clinicians. CONCLUSIONS:Unwarranted clinical practice variation is known to contribute to different health outcomes for patients with similar etiologies. Clinical practice guidelines offer evidence based, best practice standards, however are only effective if adopted throughout the healthcare system. Wide variability in acute care practices, pathways and timing to specialist centres for TSCI was evidenced by this survey despite seniority among clinicians. This devastating injury requires prompt, consistent, evidence based care from the moment of first responder. Improved outcomes for patients with TSCI would be more likely with standardised care across pre-hospital, emergency and acute care phases of care.

Dataset Information

Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury Care in Canada: A Survey of Canadian Centers.

Publications

Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury Care in Canada: A Survey of Canadian Centers.

Similar Datasets

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