Medical coverage analysis for Wisconsin's Olympics: the Badger State Games.

The objective of this analysis is to determine the prevalence and severity of injuries encountered during the 1994-96 Badger State Summer Games Finals. Allocation of available medical personnel can be determined with this information. Medical contact with an athlete required an evaluation form to be completed by the health care professional covering the event. Information was compiled and analyzed to determine injury frequency and severity. Of the 31,580 athletes competing over the three year period in the 11 sports provided with medical personnel, 285 suffered a reportable injury. Soccer and basketball had the highest number of reported injuries with 68 and 65 injuries respectively. Basketball (2.00%), cycling (1.59%), wrestling (1.50%) and roller hockey (1.24%) had the highest injury rates. Severity of injury determined by the number of injuries transported to a medical facility found wrestling (23), soccer (22), basketball (11), and cycling (6) with the highest numbers of severe injuries. Wrestling (1.27%), basketball (.34%), soccer (.32%), and cycling (.21%) had the highest rate of severe injury. The most common sustained injuries were found to be sprains, strains, skin wounds, and contusions. These four types of injuries made up 70.18% of the injuries sustained. In conclusion, non-physician medical presence may be adequate coverage in most venues at multi-sport athletic competitions like the Badger State Games because of the relatively low frequency of severe injuries.