Description

Pasquale et al used a classification system to assess preventability of a patient's death. This can help to evaluate the quality of care that the patient received. The authors are members of the Pennsylvania Trauma Systems Foundation (PTSF) Outcomes Committee.


Patient selection: a patient who has died

 

Parameters:

(1) survivability of the injuries

(2) adherence to care protocols

(3) provider care

 

Classification:

(1) preventable mortality

(2) potentially preventable mortality

(3) nonpreventable mortality

 

Parameter

Preventable

Potentially Preventable

Not Preventable

survivability

survivable

survivable with optimal care

not survivable

adherence to protocols

not followed with definite unfavorable results

not followed with possible unfavorable results

followed OR not followed but did not affect outcome

provider care

inappropriate with unfavorable results

suboptimal with some negative results

appropriate OR suboptimal but did not affect outcome

 

One way to implement this is to assign points from 0 to 10 cm along a 10 cm VAS scale and then to summate the measurements, with a maximum of 30 cm. A simpler way is to assign 0, 0.5 or 1 point, with a maximum score of 3.0


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