Children's reverified as Level I trauma center
Each year, thousands of children end up in Trauma Services at Children's. Whether they've fallen off a bike, been in a car accident or broken a bone at football practice, children and their families rely on the pediatric trauma experts at Children's.
This team of physicians, nurses, social workers and other health professionals has recently achieved a major milestone that underscores the hospital's mission to make life better for children. The American College of Surgeons (ACS) and the Texas Department of State Health Services (TDSHS) renewed the hospital's pediatric Level I trauma designation.
In 2005, Children's became the first free-standing pediatric hospital in the Southwest to qualify for Trauma Level I status. To maintain this status, Trauma Services must be reverified by the ACS and TDSHS every three years.
"Attaining Level I trauma designation status is a significant benchmark for any hospital, but maintaining it over the long-haul means the institutional commitment by Children's is rock solid," said Steve Janda, trauma systems director for TDSHS. "It should be a great source of community pride to know that top-notch trauma care is available to the children of the Dallas community and surrounding areas."
Children's is one of only 14 pediatric facilities in the U.S. with Level I status; it is also one of the largest and busiest in terms of patient volume. In 2007, the hospital admitted 1,429 trauma patients and saw more than 13,000 trauma cases.
To receive Trauma Level I status, a hospital must provide:
- 24-hour coverage by trauma surgeons.
- 24-hour in-house coverage by pediatric emergency medicine specialists.
- 24-hour in-house coverage by anesthesiology and operating room personnel.
- Prompt availability of care in specialties such as orthopedic surgery, neurosurgery and plastic surgery.
- Immediate availability of the trauma intensive care unit and critical care physicians.
- Comprehensive radiology, including interventional radiology.
- 24-hour availability of the laboratory and blood bank.
- Substance abuse and alcohol screening.
Other key elements of Trauma Level I centers include:
- Medical education programs, including residency program support and postgraduate training in trauma for physicians and nurses.
- Research.
- Injury prevention programs.
Because of the amount of resources required for patient care, education and research, most Level I trauma centers are university-based teaching hospitals.
Team approach to trauma care
Trauma care requires close collaboration among a number of hospital departments, physicians, nurses and other pediatric health professionals. For instance, once Emergency Department personnel stabilize a child's injury, the patient may need surgery in Perioperative Services, scans from Radiology or life support from Critical Care. Eventually, the child may require physical, occupational or speech therapy from Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.
"Receiving a renewal of Trauma Level I accreditation is really a testament to the entire Trauma team," said Dr. Steve Megison, chief of Trauma at Children's and professor of Pediatric Surgery at UT Southwestern Medical Center. "It is the dedication of everyone from our Injury Prevention team to nursing to our Physical Therapy teams that makes this happen for our patients every day."
American College of Surgeons highlights department's strengths
In a letter to the hospital from the American College of Surgeons, the surveyors listed a number of strengths of the Trauma Services team at Children's, including:
- The dedication to ongoing trauma education to all staff.
- The completeness of trauma documentation among Emergency Department nurses.
- The hospital's extensive research-oriented Injury Prevention program. The IP team includes a dedicated researcher who studies the behavioral and psychological aspects of injury prevention. Trauma Services also has a clinical research coordinator who facilitates clinical studies with surgeons and multidisciplinary teams.
While Level I trauma reverification is a proud achievement, it is not the ultimate goal, Dr. Megison said. "The point is to continually improve and reevaluate ourselves. We'll take the evaluation from the ACS and use the information to do an even better job, to make our processes even better and to take care of our kids even better."
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Physical therapist Margaret Scholl (left) examines the ankle of 12-year-old trauma patient Jennifer Alvarado (right) as trauma nurse Sara Moore (center), RN, PNP, looks on. Jennifer was treated in the Emergency Department after falling from her bicycle earlier this year. She has received follow up treatment at the Children's multidisciplinary trauma clinic. Children's announced last week that the hospital has been reverified as Level I Pediatric Trauma Center.
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