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The Trauma Seal of Approval
Tufts Medical Center now can accept trauma patients directly, helping save lives and provide valuable training
By Bruce Morgan
“Our designation as a trauma center is the culmination of an intense multidisciplinary effort,” says Reuven Rabinovici, chief of trauma at Tufts Medical Center and a professor of surgery at the medical school. Photo: John Soares
Tufts Medical Center has won approval as a major adult trauma center, a designation certain to improve service to the local community, raise the standard of care throughout the hospital, enhance student and resident training and generate more referrals.
To become a state-designated trauma center, hospitals must satisfy the stringent requirements of the American College of Surgeons, which include having an operating room open and ready at all times as well as a trauma surgeon within 15 minutes of the hospital 24 hours a day, and also gain approval from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
In the words of William Mackey, chair of surgery at the hospital, “We have gotten the Good Housekeeping seal of approval, if you will.”
Reuven Rabinovici, chief of trauma at Tufts Medical Center and a professor of surgery at the medical school, led the accreditation effort. Rabinovici joined Tufts in 2006 after establishing and heading the nationally renowned trauma program at Yale-New Haven Hospital.
“We are in the business of saving lives, and therefore being a trauma surgeon is a privilege,” he remarks. “Our designation as a trauma center is the culmination of an intense multidisciplinary effort, which was made possible through the hard work and dedication of many individuals and through the support of the department of surgery and the hospital’s leadership.”
Brien Barnewolt, head of emergency medicine at the hospital, is gratified to see the trauma center designation because it promises better care to area residents. “I know of several cases of patients,” he says, “who have been injured right outside our doors and were taken elsewhere, bypassing our hospital. That’s the protocol, and I have no argument with it. But now we can admit those patients.”
Improvements in equipment and processes that have been honed and perfected for trauma cases will benefit everyone in the hospital, Barnewolt points out. One example would be the expertise gained by hospital staff in the rapid resuscitation of patients. Practice makes a difference. “The more you take care of critically ill patients, the better you get at it,” he observes. “We now have a team that’s a little better oiled.”
Mackey notes that injured patients will now be coming straight to the hospital, rather than through referrals, as before. “Whether it’s a stab wound, a gunshot wound or a car accident on the Pike, we will get trauma cases directly from the scene, and that will have an impact on the quality of our training,” he says.
The adult trauma division handled some 500 to 600 patients in 2008, and expects to see a greater volume in the coming year. The Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts Medical Center has long operated the Kiwanis Pediatric Trauma Institute, a designated trauma center for children and the nation’s first dedicated pediatric center.
Bruce Morgan can be reached at bruce.morgan@tufts.edu.
