Rushing Gunshot Victims to Trauma Care: The Influence of First Responders and the Challenge of the Geography

Abstract

Past research exploring correlates to gunshot wound fatality have focused on the distance between the victim/incident location and trauma care facilities. Far less is known regarding the role of first responders in linking individuals to trauma care services. This study introduces a new method for measuring proximity to trauma care services and first responder locations, using the STATA OSRMTIME package to assess this relationship. A positive and significant relationship was found between travel time, measured in minutes, from first responder locations and the likelihood of gunshot fatality, controlling for age, race, sex, and, injury severity.