Busan cuts trauma transfers to other regions by half

Transfers of serious and moderate trauma patients to hospitals outside Busan have fallen sharply, and the city's capacity to treat such patients locally has improved, according to a new analysis.

Busan city said Tuesday that its pilot project to build a Busan-style regional trauma care system cut the average monthly number of serious and moderate trauma patients transferred out of the region by about 53.8 percent — from 6.5 cases last year to 3 this year.

The share of patients admitted to local trauma hub hospitals rose 9.4 percentage points, from 10.2 percent last year to 19.6 percent this year. Broken down by severity, the intake rate for serious patients climbed from 10.6 percent to 18.6 percent, while the rate for moderate patients rose from 9.9 percent to 20.1 percent.

The average time needed to select a hospital for serious patients fell from 24.3 minutes to 21.5 minutes, a reduction of 2.8 minutes, while average transport time dropped from 15.3 minutes to 12.1 minutes — a 3.2-minute improvement.

Particularly notable was a sharp reduction in indirect transfer times. The average time to transfer trauma patients to Pusan National University Hospital fell by 74.2 minutes, from 332.3 minutes to 258.1 minutes.

The pilot project operates on a hub-and-spoke model, with the Busan Regional Trauma Center at Pusan National University Hospital serving as the hub and local trauma hub hospitals as the spokes. Pusan National University Hospital handles complex surgeries and intensive care as the final point of treatment, while local trauma hub hospitals are responsible for initial assessment, rapid intervention and stabilization.

Following a public selection process in April, the city designated Centum General Hospital and Joheun Samseon Hospital as local trauma hub hospitals, and has been supporting them in securing dedicated trauma staff and establishing round-the-clock response systems.

With the pilot project demonstrating tangible improvements in Busan's trauma response capacity, the city said it plans to continue monitoring the trauma care infrastructure and 24-hour readiness of local hub hospitals while strengthening coordination between the regional trauma center and the fire department.