Improvements in the Management of Trauma Patients With the Introduction of a Lower Limb Trauma Coordinator

Mortality and morbidity from trauma continues to be a serious, ubiquitous public health problem. Our short communication reports on the benefits of a dedicated lower limb trauma coordinator (LLTC) to the trauma service of a busy inner-London Plastics unit. This is based on a retrospective case-note based audit; performed 19 months prior to the introduction of the LLTC and for 16 months after. After the introduction of a LLTC our statistical analysis demonstrated a significant improvement in trauma timings in terms of injury to referral time, time to first plastics operation and duration of inpatient stay. This suggests the use of a fully qualified nurse with an orthopaedic background as a coordinator may prove to be highly advantageous over a non-clinical administrator improving the overall journey of the lower limb trauma patient in the English National Health Service.