Firearm & Violent Injury Research

Violent injury is a leading cause of death among young Americans and survivors of violent injury are at increased risk of reinjury and rehospitalization due to violence. Breaking this cycle of violence is the main goal for hospital-based violence intervention programs (HVIPs). Our American College of Surgeons verified Level I trauma program was the first established in Minnesota and continues to be the premier center for the treatment and management of traumatic injury in the region. 

A major barrier to firearm research is the lack of ability to track patients across systems to assess repeat injury. In our cross-hospital collaboration, we found that repeat victims of firearm injury were treated at the second hospital system 31.5% of the time. In a study using data from the National Readmission Database of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project, we found that 9.9% of assault-related firearm admissions had subsequent readmission within 90-days. New traumatic injury was the primary indication of hospitalization for 9% of these readmissions. In our single center study examining violent trauma recidivism, we found 9.8% of patients had repeat injury within a range of 2.4 to 4.1 years. When examining firearm trauma recidivism across hospital systems, we found an average time to repeat firearm injury was 7.7 years (range: 7 months to 12 years). In our focused review of firearm violence, we found that repeat victims of firearm injury were at significant risk of mortality, a risk that increased with each subsequent admission.