Many healthcare leaders have their doubts about Google Glass. Does it violate patient privacy? Will it increase physician distractions? Most important for trauma professionals, does Google Glass have a role to play during a fast paced trauma activation? Recently, members of the trauma team at Forbes Hospital, a Level II trauma center in Monroeville, Pennsylvania,…
Author: Robert Fojut
Many trauma centers are struggling to maintain a full team of trauma registrars. According to a recent survey, more than a quarter of trauma programs have trouble recruiting registrars, and over one-third have problems with retention. New criteria from the American College of Surgeons could make building a registry team even more challenging. According to…
Clinical trials for time-sensitive emergency therapies often enroll patients under exception from informed consent (EFIC). U.S. regulations require investigators to conduct a pre-trial “community consultation” with representatives from the communities where the investigation will take place. But what do patients themselves think of EFIC trials? A study publishing next month in Critical Care Medicine explores…
Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) in Qatar recently received the Trauma Distinction Award of Excellence from Accreditation Canada International (ACI). HMC is the first trauma organization in the world to earn the recognition. The ACI program gives international trauma organizations access to evidence-based standards, in-depth performance indicators and on-site visits by expert evaluators. “This accreditation represents…
Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) in Qatar submitted two performance improvement projects as part of its recent effort to earn the Trauma Distinction Award of Excellence from Accreditation Canada International (ACI). In keeping with ACI’s system focus, the projects aimed to improve trauma care in both the field and the hospital. Improving rapid sequence intubation (RSI)…
The Cribari Grid has long been the standard tool for measuring undertriage and overtriage rates within a trauma system. But while the grid is relatively simple, using it to monitor and improve triage performance is a challenge. According to David Kashmer, MD, chair of surgery at Signature Healthcare in Brockton, Massachusetts, using triage rates incorrectly…
What is the right “scale” for a trauma quality program? Four years ago, the Michigan trauma community launched a region-level quality collaborative. Leaders say a regional collaborative is large enough to provide meaningful comparative data, but small enough to allow trauma teams to meet, build mutual trust and work together effectively on quality improvement. The…
Collaborative trauma programs are rare but they can offer several benefits. In a collaborative program, two hospitals work together to function as a single Level I trauma center. Last week, however, a longstanding trauma collaboration between two Illinois hospitals came to an end. A similar agreement in Nebraska broke up last summer. If current trends…
The American College of Surgeons (ACS) released a statement Thursday urging health system leaders to base trauma center designation decisions on the needs of injured patients. The statement includes recommendations for optimizing trauma center allocation within regional trauma systems. The “Statement on Trauma Center Designation Based Upon System Need” was developed by the ACS Committee…
England’s National Health Service introduced regional trauma networks in 2012. Under the new system, 26 hospitals were designated as Major Trauma Centres (MTCs). At one hospital, becoming an MTC has led to care delays and higher complication rates for elderly hip fracture patients. The results were published in a recent paper in Injury, the official…