Tag Archives: survey

Survey

Last Chance To Participate In The Trauma PI Coordinator Survey!

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Thanks to all who have already participated in the Trauma PI Coordinator Survey! I’m beginning to wind it down, and will be closing it this Sunday night. If you have not taken part, please take a moment to read the following and fill it out!

Trauma performance improvement (PI) is a very complicated business, and more trauma centers fail their verification visits due to PI problems than for any other reason. The amount of information reviewed in the trauma PI program and the volume of documentation required can be quite onerous, but is necessary to assure the highest quality trauma care.

Many centers are now hiring trauma PI coordinators (TPIC) to free up other personnel from this time consuming task. Do you have a trauma PI coordinator, or do you wish you did? Please take two minutes to fill out a quick survey. I am trying to determine how many centers do and how many do not have a PI coordinator. I’d also like to correlate the center demographics with PI coordinator presence or absence.

For that reason, you must have one key piece of information before you fill out the survey. I need the total number of trauma registry admits for your center. You can find this out from your trauma program manager (TPM) or the lead registrar. Or better yet, have your TPM fill out the survey!

The survey will close this Sunday night, and then I will publish the results here in the next few weeks. I’ll show TPIC FTEs vs center level and type, trauma volume, and other fun tidbits that might help those have-nots out there get one of their own!

You can access the survey by clicking here

Thanks for participating!

Survey

Glasgow Coma Scale And Trauma Activation

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The American College of Surgeons has a list of seven required criteria that must trigger a top-level trauma activation at trauma centers verified by it. One of the seven involves the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score, and the threshold is defined as GCS < 9.  However, the range of actual scores used by trauma programs varies widely from about 13 down to the minimum of 8.

So I’m curious: what does your trauma center use? Please help me out and answer the survey I’ve posted below. Remember, I am asking for the threshold you use for only your top-level trauma activation. I’ll post the range of answers next week. Thanks!

Sorry, the survey is closed

Procedures

ED Thoracotomy Survey: Read The Answers! (Rest of the World)

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Last time, I posted summary info for ED thoracotomy on US trauma centers. Here’s a rundown of the answers provided by international respondents. A few duplicates from the same hospitals have been merged into single answers for them. The total number of international centers for the tables below is now 43.

Level of trauma center (or equivalent)

Level I 22
Level II 8
Level III 6
No level 7

 

How many ED thoracotomies are performed per year at your hospital?

A few per year (<6) 30
About every month (6-15) 6
A couple of times a month (16-30)4 4
About every week (31-52) 2
Not specified 1

 

What type of trauma do you perform ED thoracotomy for?

Both blunt and penetrating 22
Penetrating 17
Blunt 4

 

Do you use a practice guideline for ED thoracotomy?

Yes 17
No 16
I’m not sure 10

 

Do you use REBOA in your ED?

No 32
Yes 9
I’m not sure 2

 

And now for the questions you’ve been waiting for!

Who could perform ED thoracotomy at your hospital? (n=149)

Surgeon 39
Emergency physician 25
Surgical resident / fellow 15
Emergency medicine resident 7
Intensivist 1
ED intern / medical officer 1
No one 1

 

Who usually performs ED thoracotomy at your hospital? (n=149)

Surgeon 32
Emergency physician 15
Surgical resident / fellow 9
Emergency medicine resident 1
Thoracic surgeon on call 1
Trauma team leader 1
Never done one 1

 

Procedures

ED Thoracotomy Survey: Read The Answers! (US)

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Again, thanks for all who submitted their survey answers. Here’s a rundown of the answers provided by US respondents. A few duplicates from the same hospitals have been merged into single answers for them. Total number of US centers for the tables below is 149.

Level of trauma center

Level I 83
Level II 37
Level III 15
Level IV 1
Level V 2
Seeking verification/designation 1
No level 10

 

How many ED thoracotomies are performed per year at your hospital?

A few per year (<6) 83
About every month (6-15) 35
A couple of times a month (16-30) 23
About every week (31-52) 8

 

What type of trauma do you perform ED thoracotomy for?

Both blunt and penetrating 79
Penetrating 64
Blunt 5

 

Do you use a practice guideline for ED thoracotomy?

Yes 86
No 47
I’m not sure 15

 

Do you use REBOA in your ED?

No 88
Yes 58
I’m not sure 3

 

And now for the questions you’ve been waiting for!

Who could perform ED thoracotomy at your hospital? (n=149)

Surgeon 145
Emergency physician 109
Surgical resident / fellow 93
Emergency medicine resident 66
APP (PA, NP) 2 at one Level I and one Level V
Family physician 1 at one Level V
Family medicine resident 1 at one Level V

 

Who usually performs ED thoracotomy at your hospital? (n=149)

Surgeon 115
Emergency physician 25
Surgical resident / fellow 69
Emergency medicine resident 17
Never done one 3
Family physician or family nurse practitioner 1 at one Level V

 

Who usually performs ED thoracotomy at your hospital? (By trauma center level)

Level I (n=83) II (n=37) III (n=15)
Surgeon 64 35 11
Emergency physician 8 3 6
Surgical resident 63 4 1
Emergency medicine resident 12 1 2
No one 0 0 1

 

Join me tomorrow when I review the international data!

Procedures

Coming Tomorrow: ED Thoracotomy Survey Results

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The data is in!

Thanks to everybody (all 200+ of you) who participated in the ED thoracotomy survey over the past month. I’m currently compiling the results and will post them here over the next two days.

Here is a summary of who responded:

  • 50% were emergency medicine physicians or residents
  • 22% were surgeons or surgical residents
  • 15% were nurses
  • 6% were advanced practice providers such as NPs or PAs

And where were they located?

As you can see, the vast majority (167) were from the United States. Australia, Canada, and Denmark added another 18, and a variety of other countries contributed the remaining 27 surveys.

Over the next two days, I’ll focus on the US data, then look at the results from the rest of the world.

Again, thanks for contributing!