Summer is trauma season

During the sunny summer months, emergency departments are flooded with traumatic orthopedic and soft tissue injuries mostly sustained during outdoor activities.

Patients with injuries — ranging from the “major” catastrophic broken bones and lacerations to seemingly everyday sprains, strains, and ankle twists that cause a prolonged limp — will benefit in the long term from an evaluation and treatment in a trauma center.

What is a trauma center?

A trauma center is a designation obtained by an emergency department that is specially staffed, trained, and equipped to provide care for patients who have suffered an injury.

These injuries could be those sustained in a significant car accident to open wounds to a broken arm resulting from an incident at home.

While emergency departments are able to care for a variety of conditions and ailments — some of them life threatening — a trauma center verification is a designation that’s earned from a national governing body, specifically the American College of Surgeons.

Why choose a trauma center?

A broken arm, deep laceration, or puncture wound, even those deemed non-life-threatening, require immediate treatment, and the emergency department is the proper setting.

But when it comes to the level of care provided within that emergency department, a trauma center provides added value, and every age can benefit as trauma centers have multiple medical specialties available to thoroughly evaluate the injury to create a comprehensive care plan, whether the patient arrives by ambulance or walks through the entrance.

For instance, a 75-year-old man falls in his home and breaks his arm. Within the trauma center, the patient initially meets the emergency physician, who can bring in an orthopedic surgeon to further evaluate the break, but also bring a neurologist to evaluate the patient for a concussion in case he hit his head in the fall, and a cardiologist to evaluate if a heart issue led to feeling faint and causing the fall.

On the other end of the trauma spectrum, a 7-year-old girl comes in after having fallen off the back deck and breaking her leg. An orthopedic trauma surgeon can evaluate the break and set the bone to ensure the bone’s healing properly will not interfering with her ability to comfortably walk as she grows.

The centers, too, are equipped to immediately evaluate and treat the most serious of injuries.

 

Trauma care at McLaren

Learn more about what it means to be a trauma center and find your nearest McLaren emergency and trauma director.

Click here