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March 16, 2005 |
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State Makes WMC Trauma Designation
Official
The Virginia Department of Health, Office of
Emergency Medical Services, designated
Winchester Medical Center as a Level II Trauma
Center in a ceremony on Tuesday morning in WMC’s
Emergency Department. Health Department
officials presented hospital administration,
doctors, and staff, with a plaque signifying
this distinction. The level II trauma
designation means that many of northwestern
Virginia’s most critically injured patients will
no longer have to be flown to facilities outside
the region for trauma services.
WMC is the newest of Virginia’s 14 trauma
centers statewide. WMC now has dedicated trauma
surgeons on call 24/7, a surgical team and ED
suite dedicated to trauma, as well as a new
helicopter service available locally to expedite
transport. This is a project Terry Sinclair, MD,
VH Vice President of Medical Affairs and an
advocate for this cause since 1981, was
particularly proud to see finished. “It’s been a
long road, and it’s extremely satisfying to
finally achieve this goal,” observes Dr.
Sinclair. “Not every hospital makes the
commitment to provide this level of emergency
care, but as a regional referral center, it’s
the right thing for us to do,” he adds.
According to Trauma Services Medical Director
Greg Stanford, MD, a designated trauma center
cares for injured patients across the continuum
of the illness. “The first goal of a trauma
system is to avoid the injury before it even
occurs through prevention programs in the
community,” Dr. Stanford notes. When an injury
does occur, the event must be identified with
proper EMS triage to the appropriate trauma
facility. The trauma center then maximizes the
appropriate resources to treat those injuries
and return the patient back to the community.
“While WMC has always fulfilled some of these
needs, trauma center designation instituted a
process to accomplish each of these needs and to
continuously improve trauma care,” he adds.
“Trauma center designation is the final,
satisfying step in a process that the hospital
initiated many years ago,” says Jim Woodward,
President of WMC. “We are pleased that our Board
of Directors, physicians, and clinical staff
share such a strong commitment to improving the
scope and quality of services for our trauma
patients. A number of people have worked
tremendously hard to achieve this goal,” he
continues, “and I would like to thank and
congratulate Dr. Stanford and Lisa Wells of
Trauma Services, as well as Dr. Sinclair and Dr.
Jim Wiedower for their years of energy and
enthusiasm in seeing this project through.”
Among some of the criteria necessary for a level
II trauma designation are in-house general
surgery, a variety of medical specialists
on-call, a nurse trauma coordinator, designated
physician director, nursing quality assurance,
out-reach program, and various education
programs. Of Virginia’s 14 trauma centers, WMC
becomes the third level II, with five level I
and six level III centers rounding out the list.
“WMC fills a regional need for trauma coverage
in the Shenandoah Valley and northwestern
Virginia,” states Dr. Stanford. Previously,
advanced trauma services were only available at
Inova Fairfax Regional Trauma Center or the
University of Virginia Hospital Center in
Charlottesville. “The distance from the
Winchester area to these centers required long
transport times and delays in definitive
treatment. Now, many of these patients can be
treated at WMC or stabilized here and
transported by helicopter,” he concludes.
Valley Health, along with more
than 1,700 other hospitals and health systems across
the country, has joined the Save 100,000 Lives
Campaign, the first-ever national campaign to save
lives by implementing proven healthcare quality and
safety practices. In its
first few months, the 100K Lives Campaign, which is
sponsored by the Institute for Healthcare
Improvement, has nearly met its goal of enlisting
2,000 hospitals nationwide.
Formally unveiled in December
2004, the campaign has already been endorsed by
such distinguished healthcare organizations as
the American Medical Association, the American
Hospital Association, the American Nurses
Association, the Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services, Joint Commission, the
Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association,
and numerous quality healthcare providers and
systems in all 50 states.
“We are excited to be part of
a world-class campaign to promote safety and
quality,” explains Michael Halseth, CEO. “It is
important that Valley Health stand up and be
counted as committed to this effort, which is
entirely compatible with our goals and values
related to patient safety and quality.”
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