Trauma Resources
Trauma Center Designation Guide for Hospital Executives
The Trauma Division developed a guide to help hospital executives understand why trauma center designation is important, their role in the process, and how it is achieved and maintained.
Trauma Activation Guidelines
The Trauma Division developed a publication focusing on trauma team activations. The publication provides sample policies from several Texas hospitals, criteria for trauma team activation, and development of hospital policies.
Texas Trauma Registrar
The Texas Trauma Coordinators Forum’s Trauma Registrar Committee’s website features access to data dictionaries, education, and other resources to maintain the highest quality of data in your facility’s trauma registry.
Burn Clinical Practice Guideline
TETAF published the Burn Clinical Practice Guideline to provide clinical guidance for Texas hospitals regarding the treatment of burn patients.
National Burn Repository 2019 Update
The American Burn Association (ABA) released its National Burn Repository 2019 Update that includes a Report of Data from 2009-2018.
Best Practices Guidelines for Trauma Center Recognition of Child Abuse, Elder Abuse, and Intimate Partner Violence
The Best Practices Guidelines for Trauma Center Recognition was published by ACS Trauma Quality Improvement Program (TQIP) along with The Committee on Trauma and The American College of Surgeons.
Telemedicine in Rural Trauma Facilities
The Health Facility Compliance Guidance Letter from the Texas Health and Human Services provides instruction to hospitals in counties with a population of less than 30,000 on the use of telemedicine medical services to satisfy a Level IV trauma facility designation requirement.
ACS Trauma Quality Programs - Best Practices Guideline for Acute Pain Management in Trauma Patients
ACS Trauma Quality Programs released the Best Practices Guideline for Acute Pain Management in Trauma Patients in November 2020. Click here to view the guideline.
Trauma Lecture Files
TETAF provides complimentary access to The Electronic Library of Trauma Lectures® by the Society of Trauma Nurses. Each presentation contains learning objectives, a detailed lecture format with built-in instructor notes, and discussion questions. Additionally, there are post-test questions and answers for each presentation that may be used for self-assessment purposes.
Section 1 General Concepts
Section 2 Clinical Concepts
Section 3 Single Systems
Section 4 Unique Populations
What is Trauma-Informed Care?
Learn more about the benefits of trauma-informed care and how to become a trauma-informed organization from the Center for Health Care Strategies, Inc.
EMS Resources
Pediatric Resources
Pediatric Transfer Toolkit Available
TETAF has been authorized to share the Inter Facility Transfer Toolkit for the Pediatric Patient toolkit. The nationally developed downloadable resource is based on hospital best practices and current literature. More than 10,000 children are transferred annually to access higher levels of care and specialty services. Such moves are stressful for the patient and his/her family as well as for caregivers and facilities. The Inter Facility Transfer Toolkit for the Pediatric Patient toolkit provides resources to support the establishment of agreements or memorandums of understanding to facilitate transfer of children to specialty resources when need.
Organized in 10 sections, the toolkit will aid in the development of pediatric transfer guidelines to assist staff to accomplish a safe and timely transfer. Content is based on the best practices at hospitals across the U.S. and the current literature.
The downloadable toolkit was developed by the Emergency Nurse Association Pediatrics Committee, the Pediatric Special Interest Group of the Society of Trauma Nurses and EMS for Children National Resource Center.
Geriatric Resources
The incidence of geriatric trauma admissions is increasing. Texas trauma care providers should be aware of the differences in the triage and management of this patient population. Health care providers with additional knowledge and training in the principles of geriatric medicine will ensure this population receives optimal patient-centered care. The links below provide research, nationally accepted guidelines, protocols, tool development and best practices.
- The American College of Surgeons’ Trauma Quality Improvement Program has developed evidence-based protocols and practices to improve trauma care in elderly patients. ACS TQIP Geriatric Trauma Management Guidelines.
- The American Geriatrics Society provides Beers Criteria for Potentially Inappropriate Medication Use in Older Adults. The late Mark Beers, MD, cataloged medications that can cause adverse drug events in older adults due to their pharmocologic properties and the physiological changes of aging.
- “Cognitive Screening Tools,” an article in the January 2013 issue of Clinician Reviews provides helpful information regarding the early recognition of cognitive changes and possible underlying dementia.
- The Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma updates its “2001 Geriatric Trauma Practice Management Guideline” based on more current research with the goal of providing more specific guidance regarding triage issues, correction of medication-induced bleeding risk and end-points for resuscitation.
- The Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma provides triage guidelines for decision-making in the care of geriatric patients.
- “In-Facility Delirium Prevention Programs as a Patient Safety Strategy – A Systematic Review,” an article published in the March 5, 2013 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine reports that evidence from 19 studies that met the inclusion criteria suggests that most multicomponent interventions are effective in preventing onset of delirium in at-risk patients in a hospital setting.
- “Risk and clinical-outcome indicators of delirium in an emergency department intermediate care unit (EDIMCU): an observational prospective study” was published by Bio Med Central in 2013. The aim of the research was to determine delirium prevalence in an EDIMCU (Hospital de Braga, Braga, Portugal) and assess routine biochemical parameters that might be delirium indicators.
- The Journal of Emergency Medical Services includes the article “Geriatric Trauma: What to think about before assessing, treating & packaging the elderly.”
- The Society of Trauma Nurses’ Guideline for the Care of the Geriatric Patient Taking Anti-Coagulants Who Sustains a Traumatic Brain Injury will help trauma providers decrease the risk of a life-threatening hemorrhage in geriatric trauma patients who are on anticoagulation therapy.
- Vanderbilt University has published a manual, Confusion Assessment Method for the ICU, which will be helpful in treating geriatric trauma patients who may have delirium.
Acute Care Resources
- Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) Texas Heart Disease and Stroke Resource Digest
- Heart Attack & Data Collection Collaborative
- GETAC Cardiac Care Committee
- GETAC Stroke Committee
- Public Health Strategies for Addressing Heart Disease and Stroke in Texas, 2019-2023 (Texas Department of State Health Services)
- The American Heart Association has online stroke hospital-based care and acute stroke courses for a fee. Continuing education credit is provided. For more information, go to www.onlineaha.org.