Peak Living - Winter 2012 - (Page 11)

The trauma team’s monthly training exercises foster teamwork and bring about new methods for improved patient care. show up right away; they usually show up three or four days later.” The Joint Commission, a health care accreditation organization, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services classify decubitus ulcers as “never events,” meaning patients should never acquire bedsores in a hospital setting. “If the patient doesn’t have an ulcer when they get here and we create one, we have to explain that,” Dr. Steinbruner said. Dr. Andrew Berson, assistant director of trauma services at Memorial, said that removing patients sooner from the uncomfortable backboard aids in patient care because the patient can begin to relax. “Once we get them off the backboard, we can still keep them safe, we can still keep them flat, and prevent them from injuring a yet undiagnosed back injury, which is the biggest concern. But patients are much calmer because they are more comfortable. They are not climbing off the cots and sitting up and doing things that might put themselves in danger,” Dr. Berson said. “Nobody publishes this, but I would put the amount of time our patients spend on backboards up against anybody in the country. Here, it is a focus to get those patients off the backboard as quickly as possible because the backboard is meant to be a transport device. We have proven that it can be done quickly and safely.” Boundless Benefits A reduced time for patients on backboards is only one of the highlights of the monthly training program. It has also improved communication and teamwork among members of the trauma team. “Trauma is a team sport,” said Dr. Steinbruner, an Army doctor who works in the emergency room at Memorial. “Unless you practice as a team—or to use a military term, train as you fight—you can’t achieve a new standard. Medicine is kind of behind the curve as far as other industries in this type of training, but we are now doing it. We sit down after a real trauma and ask, ‘What went right? What can we do better?’ Everybody gets five minutes to talk about it, and then we move on to the next one.” 130,000 The number of visits to Memorial’s emergency department annually, making it the busiest ED in Colorado. W I N T E R 2 0 1 2 | 11

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Peak Living - Winter 2012

Peak Living - Winter 2012
Contents
HealthBeat
Q & A
Savoring Sucess
Trauma Training
One Devoted Donor
Focus on Food
Community Calendar

Peak Living - Winter 2012