Background: Facial trauma patients may suffer delayed operative intervention and prolonged hospital stay. This is a particularly crucial problem to address in the setting of recent critical hospital bed shortages associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Learning Objectives: Describe a system to improve time-to-surgery and reduce hospital length of stay and gain tools to develop a similar program within other care settings.
Study Objectives: Design and implement a quality improvement system for improving efficiency and reducing burden while caring for facial trauma patients.
Design Type: Quality Improvement
Methods: A Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) Cycle was implemented at a level 1 trauma center in Queens, NY targeting patients who suffered facial trauma. Interventions included a checklist, care pathway, and educational material for patients. The time from presentation until surgery and length of hospital stay were tracked as outcome measures.
Results: Over the year prior to the initiation of this study, less than 30% of facial trauma patients with operative bony trauma had surgery within 48 hours and the average length of stay was over 3 days. The future state goal is >50% of patients receiving surgery within 48 hours and reducing average length of stay to 2 days. Analysis of the current PDSA cycle is ongoing.
Conclusion: This study demonstrated that targeted changes to a system of care may lead to reduced time-to-surgery and reduce total length of stay for facial trauma patients.