Decreased length of stay, cost savings and descriptive findings of enhanced patient care resulting from an integrated traumatic brain injury programme

Abstract

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) has enormous economic consequences. The primary objective was to evaluate the effect of implementation of an integrated TBI programme on patient-care. The research design was a retrospective institutional review for which 1875 patient records were reviewed, healthcare professionals were interviewed, patient care was observed, and a literature review of the prognostic variables for mild, moderate and severe TBI was conducted. The implementation of an integrated TBI programme has reduced the average length of stay from 30.5 to 12 days and resulted in tremendous cost savings of $21.8 million over 6 years. 'Blueprinting' the continuum of TBI patients' care identified the weakest links to be the transfer of patients from the tertiary-care TBI programme to rehabilitation institutions and provision of long-term rehabilitative care due to information asymmetry. This was addressed by the development of comprehensive on-line TBI transfer documents. This study emphasizes the importance of comprehensive neurotrauma programmes.