The Influence of Insurance Status on the Transfer of Femoral Fracture Patients to a Level-I Trauma Center

Abstract

The majority (71%) of the patients with a femoral fracture who had been managed definitively within our health-care system, regardless of injury severity, had been taken directly to the trauma center. This finding suggests over-triage, which errs on the side of patient well-being. Because there was a significant difference in insurance status between patients who had been transferred to the level-I center and those who had not been transferred as well as between patients who had been definitively managed at the level-I center and those who had been managed in community hospitals, it can be assumed that insurance status as well as injury severity and orthopaedic surgeon availability influence the decision to transfer femoral fracture patients to a level-I trauma center.