• Scott M Alter, C Abigail Temple, Joshua J Solano, Patrick G Hughes, Lisa M Clayton, and Richard D Shih.
• Department of Emergency Medicine, Florida Atlantic University Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, 777 Glades Road, BC-71, Boca Raton, FL 33431, USA; Department of Emergency Medicine, Delray Medical Center, 5352 Linton Blvd, Delray Beach, FL 33484, USA; Department of Emergency Medicine, Bethesda Hospital East, 2815 S Seacrest Blvd, Boynton Beach, FL 33435, USA. Electronic address: altersm@health.fau.edu.
• Am J Emerg Med. 2022 Sep 1; 59: 152155152-155.

BackgroundHealth care disparities have been shown to negatively affect non-White people sustaining traumas, leading to increased morbidity and mortality. One possible explanation could be delays in emergent medical care. This study aims to assess if a disparity between races exists amongst acutely head-injured geriatric patients, as evidenced by the time it takes from emergency department (ED) presentation to performance of head computerized tomography (CT) imaging.MethodsA prospective cohort study was conducted from August 15, 2019 to August 14, 2020 at the two trauma centers in a south Florida county covering 1.5 million residents. Patients aged ≥ 65 years who sustained a head injury were identified daily. Patients who had a head injury >24 h prior, sustained penetrating trauma, or were transferred from another hospital were excluded. The primary outcome was time measured between ED presentation and CT head performance. Patients were grouped by race as selected from White, Black, Hispanic, and other. Comparisons were made using ANOVA analysis.Results4878 patients were included. 90% were White. The mean times to CT head were 90.3 min for White patients, 98.1 min for Black patients, and 86.6 min for Hispanic patients. There was a significant difference comparing time to CT between the three groups (F = 2.892, p = 0.034). Comparing each group to a combined others, there were no significant differences for White vs non-White (90.3 vs 91.3, F = 0.154, p = 0.695) or Hispanic vs non-Hispanic (86.6 vs 90.5, F = 0.918, p = 0.338); however Black vs non-Black (98.1 vs 89.9, F = 4.828, p = 0.028) was significant.ConclusionsGeriatric Black patients who sustained head trauma were found to have a longer time from ED presentation to performance of head CT than their non-Black counterparts.Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier Inc.

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