The trauma patient is injured due to some external cause - a motor vehicle accident, a fall or a gunshot wound, for example. This patient arrives in the emergency department with a different set of needs than someone who is critically ill, and the response required to meet these needs is complex.
Because the response is specialized and must be delivered quickly, trauma patients are best served when they are cared for in a hospital that has made a commitment to specialize in their care through a trauma center. Studies have shown that injured patients cared for in trauma centers have a mortality rate 25 percent lower than injured patients cared for in hospitals that are not trauma centers.
How can a trauma center help me?
Many of the injured patients cared for at Level 2 trauma centers are initially treated at a smaller, outlying facility. Once the patient arrives at the trauma center, he or she is met by the trauma team - a trauma surgeon and specialists such as neurosurgeons in an emergency room, and a surgical team at the ready in an operating room.
Even at 3 a.m., if it appears the patient is seriously injured, the team is ready within 15 minutes. The team will quickly provide the treatments to stabilize the patient. Many of these patients will need emergency surgery or admittance to the intensive care unit.
How many levels of trauma centers are there?
There are different levels of trauma centers, classified by their adherence to rigorous standards of patient care. Montana hospitals have been verified by a national group, the American College of Surgeons. Level 1 centers are the highest-level classification. These are teaching and research facilities in large cities and require all specialists to be available in the hospital 24 hours a day. The nearest Level 1 trauma center is at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
The next highest level is Level 2. Specialists in these centers have committed to responding to the ER within 15 minutes of being called. There are four Level 2 centers in Montana:
• St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula.
• Benefis Healthcare in Great Falls.
• St. Vincent Healthcare in Billings.
• Billings Clinic.
And there are two Level 3 centers in Montana, Community Medical Center in Missoula and Bozeman Deaconess. These centers may not have specialists who are available to respond within 30 minutes of being called.
What else do trauma centers do?
Level 2 trauma centers also participate in injury prevention programs that aim to keep people from being injured in the first place. Most traumas are avoidable by driving safely and by wearing helmets while riding bicycles, motorcycles, horses or ATVs.
In order for the critically injured patient to receive the best care and the best chance of survival, the entire system must function well. Dispatch, EMS and the hospitals must work together. The goal is to get injured patients to the right place in the right amount of time.
Registered nurse John Bleicher is the trauma coordinator at St. Patrick Hospital and Health Sciences Center. Questions for our clinicians? Please send them to info@saintpatrick.org. Remember, we cannot give individual diagnoses or advice.
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Sarah Tillett wrote on Mar 23, 2009 10:46 AM:
Thanks ,
Sarah Tillett "