Author: Robert Fojut

Severely injured patients have a better chance of survival than ever before — if they make it to a trauma center. However, a significant percentage of patients with difficult-to-control bleeding still die in the field or en route to a hospital. Recently, a group of civilian and military trauma leaders proposed a new strategy for…

Trauma research in the U.S. is underfunded compared to other diseases. While efforts are underway to lobby for additional support, these efforts do not address the underlying problem that hampers trauma research funding. According to Martin Schreiber, MD, FACS, chair of the Trauma Center Association of America (TCAA), a major problem is a lack of…

Over the last decade, trauma centers have stepped up their efforts to prepare for mass shootings. But according to an expert in mass casualty response, there are several misconceptions about mass shooting events that can undercut hospital readiness. “When you talk about disasters, you have to divide them into two types — progressive events and…

Debra Kitchens has lived the full spectrum of trauma care, from running EMS calls as a paramedic to doing scene calls as a flight nurse. As manager of trauma services at Prisma Health/Upstate in Greenville, South Carolina, she is helping to build a regional trauma network while still managing a local team of trauma professionals.…

COVID-19 is having a complex impact on trauma centers. While injury rates are down worldwide, hospitals are still receiving injured patients. And in many ways the pandemic has made trauma care more complicated than ever. What have trauma programs done to maintain patient access and standards of care during the coronavirus pandemic? To find out,…

Results from a large prehospital care study show that patients with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) benefit significantly from four simple field interventions. The study validates the use of aggressive measures to prevent or treat hypoxia, hyperventilation and hypotension in TBI patients. The Excellence in Prehospital Injury Care (EPIC) study was led by a team…

Recent mass casualty incidents in the U.S. have changed the way we think about traumatic injury. Trauma leaders now know that the key to survival for many victims is immediate bleeding control provided by first responders or private citizens. According to Lenworth Jacobs, MD, MPH, FACS, chairman of the Hartford Consensus and leader of the…

The 2018 Creighton Trauma Symposium will take place on June 15 in Omaha, Nebraska. The focus of this year’s event is the Stop the Bleed campaign. This year’s special symposium guest is Lenworth Jacobs, MD, MPH, FACS, chairman of the Hartford Consensus and leader of the ACS Stop the Bleed Program. During his keynote speech,…

In April a broad coalition of trauma stakeholders met in Bethesda, Md., to begin implementing the recommendations of the landmark Zero Preventable Deaths report. The report, which was developed by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM), proposes the creation of a joint civilian-military trauma system in the U.S. The goals are to…

Performance improvement is a key part of every trauma program. But according to David Kashmer, MD, MBA, many trauma teams fail to make effective use of their most important PI resource — data. “Using data incorrectly in performance improvement can actually decrease quality,” said Dr. Kashmer, a trauma and acute care surgeon and healthcare quality…