The Trauma Pro

I’ve seen hospitals (and trauma programs) boast that their venous thromboembolism (VTE) rate is very low. The numbers they report to state agencies or TQIP may be fractions of a percent. But is it real?

The main problem is a phenomenon called surveillance bias. This occurs when a condition appears more common in one group because that group is scrutinized more closely,...

Over the years, I’ve seen a number of trauma professionals, both surgeons and emergency physicians, order liver transaminases (SGOT, SGPT) and bilirubin in patients with liver laceration. I’ve never been clear on why, so I decided to check it out. As it turns out, this is another one of those “old habits die hard” phenomena.

Liver lacerations, by definit...

In my previous post, I stressed using a structured process to hand off information between the overnight trauma team and the incoming day providers. There is one more very important handoff that occurs in most centers as well: the afternoon handoff. This involves the transition between the day team, who received the morning report, and the trauma professionals who relieve the...

Trauma professionals are immersed in patient care for a significant portion of their workday. They accumulate and process a lot of information about many patients during that time. But at some point, they actually get to go home!

What happens to all that knowledge from their workday? It must be shared to provide good continuity of care. So ideally, it is passed on to t...

All trauma centers receive transfers  from referring hospitals. Often, a portion of the workup has already been completed at that hospital. If the patient meets one or more of your trauma activation criteria, do you still need to activate your team when they arrive?

And the answer is: sometimes. But probably not that often.