Potential predictors of hospital length of stay and hospital charges among patients with all-terrain vehicle injuries in rural Northeast Texas

Background: all-terrain vehicles (atvs) have become popular for recreation use in recent years.texas has had more atv related fatalities than any other state in the nation, with rural northeasttexas having even higher rates of injuries. there is limited data examining the relationshipbetween atv injuries and the length of hospital stay, as well as hospital costs. this paperexamines both issues in children as well as adults.methods: the regional trauma registry was analyzed for all atv related injuries betweenjanuary 2011- october 2016. injury severity score, glasgow coma scale and if they are seenat a level i trauma center are predictive for both hospital length of stay and charges.results: length of stay was predicted positively by injury severity score, emergency departmentrespiration rate and facility at which patients were treated and negatively by glasgow comascale. hospital charges were predicted positively by age, injury severity score, facility oftreatment, means of transportation, and emergency department pulse and negatively byglasgow coma scale.conclusions: the study found that vital signs can be useful in predicting length of stay andhospital charges. this study not only confirms the findings of other studies regarding whatpredictors can be used, but expands the research into rural traumatic injuries. it is hoped that thisdata can help contribute to the development of algorithms to predict which patients will be mostlikely to require resource intensive treatment.