Objective To analyze retrospectively the 1861 wounded inpatients and deaths in West China Hospital of Sichuan University after the Wenchuan earthquake, so as to provide reference for the improvement of emergency plans for the disaster of earthquake and the establishment of state-level regional medical centers. Methods The analysis was based on the data provided by the Department of Information of the Hospital up until July 23. The software of Microsoft EXCEL was used for data input, and SPSS 11.5 was used for statistical analysis. Results Up to July 23, 2728 cases from the disaster area have been treated in the hospital, of whom 872 were admitted into the emergency department and 1856 into the inpatient department (974 men, median age 43 years; 882 women, median age 46 years). Most patients were sent to the hospital within the first 2 weeks after the quake (82.4%), and the number of inpatients reached its peak on Day 8 after the quake (976 cases). The majority of the inpatients were discharged on Day 9 to Day 18 after the quake (60.2%). The wounded were mainly from Deyang, Aba Prefecture and Dujiangyan. The admission diagnoses were mainly fracture (54.84%), craniocerebral injury (9.81%) and thoracoabdominal injury (7.54%). There were totally 33 deaths, including 5 pre-hospital deaths, 1 emergency death and 27 inpatient deaths. Conclusion The development of an emergency plan for the medical rescue after an earthquake disaster is an essential step to enhance the emergent response capability, improve the scientific process of field triage, transport and transfer, and ensure the rational allocation and application of healthcare resources after any unexpected big disasters in the future.