Prehospital Personnel Discretion Pediatric Trauma Team Activations: Too Much of A Good Thing?

Retrospective study of 1,363 pediatric trauma patients demonstrates that paramedic discretion-based trauma activations result in significant over-triage compared to discrete criteria-based activations, with similar outcomes to standard consults but higher costs. Discrete protocol-driven criteria more reliably identify children requiring immediate multidisciplinary trauma team response.