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VIOLENCE AND EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES
(EMS)
EMS SYSTEM
- Approximately every 34 minutes in 1999, someone called
9-1-1 to request assistance for an injury resulting from
violence
TRAUMA SYSTEM
The Emergency Medical Services (EMS) system provides for 9-1-1
response to an incident involving trauma with transport to a
trauma center when the injury is severe enough to cause disability
or death.
- Trauma is the leading cause of death
in persons under the age of 40 and affects a substantial
percentage of the US population of all ages.
- The estimated national annual cost
for the healthcare of trauma victims exceeds 200 billion
US dollars.
- The LAC+USC Trauma Center, an approved
trauma center, is the largest in the United States with
approximately 7,000 trauma admissions per year (60% blunt
trauma, 40% penetrating trauma).
- Ninety -one percent of violent injury victims requiring
treatment at Los Angeles County trauma centers are male.
Of the victims of violent injury requiring treatment at trauma
centers:
- 53% are Hispanic
- 28% are African-American
- 16% are White
- 6% are Asian/Other
Note: person may have identified with more than one ethnicity
- In 1999, the estimated cost to treat persons at
Los Angeles County trauma centers injured by violent acts
exceeded $91 million.
- For every person admitted to Los Angeles County trauma
centers in 1999 as a result of violence, the average charges
for treatment were approximately $23,000. The average charge
for treating firearm-related injuries exceeded $30,000 per
case. The vast majority of these persons did not have medical
insurance.
- At Los Angeles County/University of Southern California
Medical Center, almost 34% of the patients admitted to the
trauma center had injuries resulting from violence.
- In 1999, the median age of victims of gunshot wounds
treated at Los Angeles County trauma centers was 23 years.
- In 1999, there were approximately 350 assaults against
women of such severity that treatment at a trauma center
was required.
Note: Violence here refers to assaults, gunshot wounds,
and stabbings
Information is provided through the Emergency Medical Services
Agency's Trauma and Emergency Medicine Information System (TEMIS)
and only reflects persons in this database and does not represent
all statistics on injuries due to violence in LA County.
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