State Trauma Center Designation Criteria and Expansion of For-Profit vs Nonprofit Trauma Centers

Does variability in US state trauma center designation criteria correlate with differential expansion of for-profit and nonprofit trauma centers?In this cross-sectional study comprising 464 trauma centers in the 50 US states and the District of Columbia, states with lower concordance between their designation criteria and American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma (ACS-COT) standards had a statistically significant correlation with for-profit trauma center expansion, particularly among centers with lower resource capacity.These findings suggest that for-profit centers may be expanding more in states where designation criteria deviate from ACS-COT benchmarks, and highlight the importance of understanding how regulatory environments may shape trauma system development.

Corresponding Author: Jeff Choi, MD, MSc, Department of Surgery, Stanford University School of Medicine, 300 Pasteur Dr, H-3641, Stanford, CA 94305 (jeffchoiacademic@gmail.com).

Link to the article in your story

We encourage you to link out to this article in your story using the link below. It includes an access token that will give free access to the article for your readers up to one year after publication. (The link will be live after the article publishes and embargo is lifted.)

Please see the article for additional information, including full author list, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

Need more information? Contact us.