• S Ruchholtz, R Lefering, F Debus, C Mand, C Kühne, and H Siebert.
• Chirurg. 2013 Sep 1;84(9):730-8.

BackgroundThe TraumaNetwork DGU® (TNW) connects hospitals with different capacities for the treatment of severely injured patients who work together as superregional (STC), regional (RTC) and local trauma centres (LTC). The standards of treatment and equipment are defined on the basis of current guidelines as published in the"White book of the Treatment of Severely Injured Patients". An external audit process evaluates the organisation and structure of participating hospitals as well as the cooperation of the trauma centres within a regional TNW.ResultsIn May 2013 a total of 618 hospitals were visited and assessed according to the White book and 39 fully certified regional TNWs covered around 85% of the area of Germany. Treatment quality in the certified TCs was analyzed on the basis of 25,249 severely injured patients in the TraumaRegister DGU® (2008-2011) and significant differences between the expected and observed mortality rates were found. These differences were most obvious in superregional and regional trauma centres.ConclusionThe TraumaNetwork represents an innovative, cooperative project for successfully improving the treatment of severely injured patients.

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