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Surgeons push for federal funding for trauma care

Legislation would double the size of grants to states to improve and expand statewide trauma systems.

By Markian Hawryluk, AMNews staff. June 23, 2003.

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Washington -- Despite significant strides to improve care for severely injured patients, many parts of the country are still not served by well-organized trauma systems, according to the American College of Surgeons.

"We've been working for years to put trauma centers together," said Wayne Meredith, MD, a trauma surgeon and chair of the ACS Committee on Trauma. "We know now that's not enough."

Dr. Meredith said injured patients need trauma systems -- an organized plan of care that coordinates emergency medical services with hospitals, thereby ensuring that patients are in the right place at the right time to maximize their chances of survival.

Several studies have shown that 40% of trauma deaths in areas without a trauma system are preventable. "There's one study that showed that having a trauma system has a greater impact on traffic fatalities than having a seat belt on. That's a big deal," Dr. Meredith said. "That is something behind which we should develop some public policy."

In spite of the high death rates, Americans have become complacent about severe injuries and tend to accept them as a fact of life, said John Fildes, MD, a Las Vegas trauma surgeon. He pointed to trauma death statistics from the National Trauma Data Bank. From ages 12 to 20, there is an exceptionally steep rise in the number of patients treated at U.S. trauma centers, primarily due to motor vehicle crashes and interpersonal violence.

"The slope of this curve is so alarming that if it were caused by a virus like SARS or HIV, there would be a national outcry for action," Dr. Fildes said. "Unfortunately, traumas have always been interpreted as some natural act, some act of God, some unpreventable problem. Nothing could be further from the truth. Injury can be predicted, injury can be treated, and people can be conditioned to avoid injury in the future."

[...]

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