Researchers at the University of Maryland examined the medical records of 27,400 patients admitted to the R. Adams Cowley Schock Trauma Center in Baltimore between 1983 and 1995 with moderate to severe injuries.

Of the 27,400 patients, 11,000 or 40 percent, tested positive for alcohol and other drugs upon admission. Of that group, more than 600 had died by the end of 1997, with 34 percent killed in a subsequent car crash, fall, gun incident, or some other violent event.

Researchers concluded that trauma centers could reduce patient deaths by providing drug and alcohol treatment. The study revealed that several trauma centers have stopped screening incoming patients because health-insurance programs can deny payments to patients who test positive for alcohol and other drugs.

"The implication is that if there were some sort of intervention begun at the time of their initial admission to the hospital, these deaths might have been prevented," said Patricia Dischinger, a University of Maryland epidemiologist who co-authored the study.

The study is published in the November 2001 edition of the Journal of Trauma.

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