November 8, 2023
Contact: media@dhs.lacounty.gov
The Office of Traffic Safety Awards More Than Half a Million Dollars to Transform Trauma Data Management in Los Angeles County
The grant funds improvement of data collection for injured patients
The California Office of Traffic Safety has awarded a grant of $700,902 to LA County Emergency Medical Services (EMS), Harbor-UCLA Department of Emergency Medicine, and the Lundquist Institute. The funding will support the use of an innovative Health Data Exchange (HDE) system to drastically improve trauma data management and foster injury prevention in Los Angeles County through an integrated electronic data sharing system.
“There’s currently no mechanism for capturing outcome data of all injured patients transported by EMS in Los Angeles County. This grant will facilitate real-time data sharing, which we can use to inform proactive measures to prevent injury, as well as to improve the field care for those patients injured in LA County,” said Richard Tadeo, Los Angeles County EMS Agency Director.
“The OTS is excited to help fund promising new data tools that have the potential to transform road safety,” OTS Director Barbara Rooney said. “This project will help EMS be more proactive versus reactive to traffic safety risks.”
Documenting patient injuries has been limited to those triaged by EMS clinicians to a Trauma Center. There has not been a mechanism to capture outcome data for all injured patients arriving at the 71 9-1-1 receiving facilities across Los Angeles County. HDE will overhaul the current manual data collection process to capture and analyze the trauma outcomes for all patients within a comprehensive electronic data sharing system. HDE will not only capture injury patterns, it will also provide data that public health entities, municipalities, and law enforcement can draw from to develop solutions to prevent common traffic crashes and pedestrian injuries.
“Los Angeles County Department of Health Services serves a diverse population, and HDE will do more than just capture data,” explained Dr. Craig Goolsby, Chair, Department of Emergency Medicine at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center “HDE insights will be pivotal to improving future patient outcomes by providing a comprehensive view of who we are treating, how they were hurt, and many nuanced aspects of their care.”
Key collaborations and milestones will include working with Trauma Centers to build injury dashboards for EMS-evaluated patients, rolling out HDE across EMS agencies, ambulance providers, and hospitals, using data insights to improve trauma education and inform injury prevention strategies. This includes patient demographics, such as language, race, and social determinants of health. Ultimately, the goal is to offer a holistic view of trauma care, facilitating better patient outcomes, and creating a safer LA for our residents.
“With this project, we’re not just improving our systems; we’re setting the standard,” said Dr. David Meyer, President and CEO of The Lundquist Institute. “Los Angeles County is pioneering a data-driven approach to injury care, and we’re eager to see its benefits ripple out across the nation.”
The grant program will run through September 2024.
Funding for this program was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.