Creation of an electronic referral pathway for pelvic and acetabular fractures in times of austerity.

The Adelaide and Meath Hospital in Tallaght is the national referral centre for all pelvic and acetabular trauma in Ireland. Referrals were made by contacting the trauma registrar on call and forwarding a letter with a copy of the patient’s films (routinely by taxi) for review. Once the films were reviewed, a decision was made as to whether surgical intervention was necessary and if so, the patient was accepted for transfer. This referral system had a number of failings, in that there was a time delay and no formal record of the consultation. Another issue was that x-ray films could go missing in transit. These factors contributed to delays in patient transfer and ultimately time to surgery. Therefore it was decided to create a new referral system that would address these issues.