Emergency Department Trauma Admissions and Sudden Loss Metrics, Evaluating the Clinical Baseline for Crisis and Trauma-Informed Chaplaincy.
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Sudden in-hospital death and emergency trauma admissions generate acute traumatic bereavement that planned palliative pathways do not address. Using 559 de-identified discharges from the New Mexico Hospital Inpatient Discharge Data (2021 to 2023), we defined sudden loss as death within 72 hours of admission and constructed a county-level Crisis Intervention Need Index from sudden death, traumatic brain injury, and premature mortality rates. Twenty of 138 in-hospital deaths (14.5 percent) were sudden, and the trauma and acute crisis cohort showed double the odds of sudden death relative to chronic admissions (odds ratio 2.08). The index identified Torrance, Curry, Quay, Hidalgo, and Sandoval as priority counties and correlated strongly with sudden death rate (r = 0.74) while remaining largely independent of hospital volume (r = 0.22), supporting spatially targeted crisis chaplaincy deployment.
Source: Research Square
Author: Evaristus Chukwu
Institution: Presbyterian Hospital
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7204843956