Trauma Emergencies

Each year trauma accounts for 41 million emergency department visits and 2.3 million hospital admissions across the nation.

Life Years Lost (2014, most recent available)

• Trauma injury accounts for 30% of all life years lost in the U.S.
• Cancer accounts for 16%
• Heart disease accounts for 12%

Because trauma is a disease affecting all ages of people, the impact on life years lost is equal to the life years lost from cancer, heart disease and HIV combined.

Economic Burden

• $671 billion a year, including both health care costs and lost productivity

Deaths due to injury (2014, most recent available)

• 192,000

Ranking as cause of death3.5

• #1 for age group 1-46, or 47% of all deaths in this age range
• #3 as leading cause of death overall, across all age groups

Burns (2013, most recent available)

• 450,000 burn injuries require medical attention annually.
• 40,000 hospitalizations related to burn injury.
• 3,400 fire/burn/smoke inhalation deaths per year

Falls (2013, most recent available)

• Each year, 2.5 million older people are treated in emergency departments for fall injuries and at least 250,000 older people are hospitalized for hip fractures.
• Over 700,000 patients a year are hospitalized because of a fall injury, most often because of a head injury or hip fracture.

From The National Trauma Institute