Trauma
For patients who suffer life-threatening or life-changing injury, New Hanover Regional Medical Center provides the only Trauma Center in the region.
More than 1,700 patients per year are admitted to the hospital through the Trauma Center, one of 10 Level II or higher trauma sites designated by the state's Office of Emergency Medical Services.
The Trauma Center includes not only the Trauma Services Department, but a continuum of care that includes: the Emergency Department, Surgical Services, Surgical/Trauma Intensive Care Unit, Pediatirics, PICU, PCU, the surgical floor at New Hanover Regional, and the NHRMC Rehabilitation Center. The Trauma Center works with New Hanover Regional EMS, VitaLink, and AirLink, the region's air ambulance services, to deliver optimal Trauma Care.
What It Means to be a Trauma Center
As a Trauma Center, board-certified surgeons, nurses and other staff are available 24 hours a day, every day. The center includes an Emergency Department with physicians who are board-certified in Emergency Medicine and an operating room that can be immediately available.
Other features include resuscitation equipment for patients of all ages, nursing staff with trauma care experience, an outreach program for injury prevention and documented continuing education for staff and physicians.
The Trauma Center also includes a full-time Trauma Performance Improvement Coordinator, Trauma Program Manager and Trauma Medical Director who work together to direct continuous improvement activities with the goal of reducing trauma morbidity and mortality.
The center maintains a Trauma Registry, which captures over 300 data elements on every truama admission. This data is used to identify opportunities to prevent injury, improve care, and monitor trauma patient outcomes.
Trauma Services
The Department of Trauma Services encompasses direct patient care, and provides outreach and educational programs to the community. Trauma Services provides direct clinical care to the trauma patient through the trauma teams, surgical attending, residents, and nursing staff. Throughout the course of treatment, the trauma residents monitor care until the patient is ready to be discharged home or transferred to a rehabilitation facility.
Trauma Services also provides the administrative supervision for all Trauma Services programs, including the Southeastern Regional Advisory Committee (SERAC). SERAC develops standards of trauma care, and provides guidelines for the transfer of the trauma patient. Trauma Services also directs the community outreach and injury prevention programs, providing continuing educational programs for providers of trauma care. In addition, Trauma Services maintains the trauma registry and reports vital data to state and national agencies for benchmarking and ongoing improvement.
The trauma team is a group of healthcare professionals organized to provide care to the trauma patient. This multidisciplinary team approach to the care of trauma patients is critical to the success of the trauma program. Through collaboration, every member of the trauma team supports an important component of trauma care that contributes to successful patient outcomes.
More Information
For more information, visit the following pages:
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