Does mortality after trauma team activation peak at shift change?

Background: Prior institutional data have demonstrated trauma mortality to be highest between 06:00–07:59 at our center, which is also when providers change shifts (07:00–07:30). The objective was definition of patient, provider, and systems variables associated with trauma mortality at shift change among patients arriving as trauma team activations (TTA). Methods: All TTA patients at our ACS-verified Level I trauma center were included (01/2008–07/2019), excluding those with undocumented arrival time. Study groups were defined by arrival time: shift change (SC) (06:00–07:59) vs. non-shift change (NSC) (all other times). Univariable/multivariable analyses compared key variables. Propensity score analysis compared outcomes after matching. Results: After exclusions, 6020 patients remained: 229 (4%) SC and 5791 (96%) NSC. SC mortality was 25% vs. 16% during NSC (p < 0.001). More SC patients arrived with SBP <90 (19% vs. 11%, p < 0.001) or GCS <9 (35% vs. 24%, p < 0.001). ISS was higher during SC (43[32–50] vs. 34[27–50], p < 0.001). Time to CT scan (36[23–66] vs. 38[23–61] minutes, p = 0.638) and emergent surgery (94[35–141] vs. 63[34–107] minutes, p = 0.071) were comparable. Older age (p < 0.001), SBP <90 (p < 0.001), GCS <9 (p < 0.001), need for emergent operative intervention (p = 0.044), and higher ISS (p < 0.001) were independently associated with mortality. After propensity score matching, mortality was no different between SC and NSC (p = 0.764). Conclusions: Early morning is a low-volume, high-mortality time for TTAs. Increased mortality at shift change was independently associated with patient/injury factors but not provider/systems factors. Ensuring ample clinical resource allocation during this high acuity time may be prudent to streamline patient care at shift change.