Page 81 - Robeson Living

SRMC overhauls trauma code

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A new process for responding to trauma patients in the
emergency room, called Code Trauma, recently started at
Southeastern Health’s Southeastern Regional Medical Center.
This new approach for organizing how different departments
activate and serve patients arriving with severe injuries is
designed to create a more effective response system and
improve patient outcomes.

“We want the community to know we are making great efforts
to ensure that trauma patients are cared for as quickly and
effectively as possible,” said SRMC Emergency Services
Coordinator Keenya Locklear, who is one of the leaders of the
new initiative. “Each department involved has goals regarding
the speed of delivery for their services.”

The new system was designed by a committee which included
nurses, providers, and other interdisciplinary team members
from within and without the hospital, including the
SRMC Emergency Services staff conducted a mock trauma emergency department, respiratory therapy, information
drill on Friday, May 18 in preparation for the technology, patient access, medical imaging, blood bank,
implementation of a new trauma code, which will go into laboratory, Medcare Ambulance Service, Robeson County
EMS, Lumberton Rescue, Red Springs Rescue and Pembroke
effect on May 21. Rescue.

Experts from Duke University Hospital’s Level 1 Trauma Center Regional Advisory Committee, or RAC, have also been
heavily involved in the planning of this new process and have helped with providing additional trauma classes for nurses and
providers.
“We have a great partnership with Duke’s Regional Advisory Committee and Georgina Durst, the Duke RAC coordinator,”
said SRMC Emergency Services Unit Manager Natalie Russ. “They assist us with knowledge opportunities, connections to
resources and standard processes. They have arranged opportunities for us to offer local Trauma Nursing Core Courses and
Rural Trauma Courses to our nurses, residents and doctors, in order to prepare our staff to serve our patients efficiently. We
review case studies with them on our trauma transfers to evaluate areas of opportunity and reflect on the standards of which
we should be proud.”

Code Trauma starts with relaying the news of incoming trauma patients as an overhead announcement throughout the
hospital, so that multiple departments can be ready at the patient’s bedside when they arrive, or just outside their door. When
advance warning isn’t possible, the new code allows for some departments to prioritize requests and streamline the
immediate procedures and paperwork so that services like blood, x-rays, and CT scans can be given as quickly as possible.

The code, which can be called as either Trauma Red or Trauma Yellow, can be activated by paramedics in the field,
dispatchers handling calls, or an ED charge nurse or physician.

The difference between the red and yellow trauma codes is mainly based on whether the ED will need blood for a patient.

“A Trauma Red patient may have suffered blood loss, so we need to be prepared as quickly as possible to have blood products
ready for transfusion,” said Emergency Services Director Sonja Hilburn. “The Trauma Red code will set that in motion before
a provider needs to enter the order.”
SRMC sees an average of 65,000 patients a year in the emergency room, which has four beds dedicated for trauma patients.
Between Jan. 1 and April 30 of this year, 1,968 patients arrived by ambulance with some sort of trauma. This number does
not include the number of trauma patients who arrived in personal vehicles.

work
in the
highly
special
ized
enviro
nment
of the
Neona
tal
Intensi
ve
Care
Unit
(NICU SeHe
). Since
2016, alth
Occup
ational anno
Thera
pist unce
and
Inpatie s new
nt
Rehab walk-
Service
s in
Coordi
nator
Jyutika clin
Zope
and
Physic
al
Thera
pist
Willia
m
Hunt
have
been
workin
g with
full-
term
and
premat
ure
babies
at
SRMC.
Their
work is
aided
by
upgrad
es
made
in
2017
to the
unit,
which
can
care
for
babies
born
up to
10
weeks
early.

“Not a
lot of
therapi
sts go
into
the
NICU,
” Hunt
said.
“It
require
s
additio
nal
trainin
g and
mentor
ship,
and
becaus
e it’s so
special
ized, it
can be
hard
to find
people
to
mentor
you in
this
area.
We
conduc
t
evalua
tions,
develo
p
treatm
ent
plans,
and as
they
progre
ss to go
home,
we
integra
te the
family
into
that
plan.”

Kayla
White,
of
Lumbe
rton, is
a nurse
at
SRMC
who is
also a
parent
of a
child
who
went
throug
h the
NICU.
Her
son,
Harris
on,
who
turns 1
this
weeken
d, was
born
six
weeks
early
but is
now
thrivin
g.