New trauma center to save more lives

By Sean Barron

Trauma teams will be able to treat those with severe injuries more quickly.

YOUNGSTOWN — A new trauma center at St. Elizabeth Health Center is equipped to handle numerous procedures simultaneously, a move that promises to enhance lifesaving capabilities.

The two rooms, with a total of about 400 square feet, opened Wednesday and are ready to more quickly treat those who suffer traumatic injuries, partly because such patients won’t have to be taken to another part of the hospital for X-rays or other procedures, noted Daneen Mace-Vadjunec, program director for trauma services.

“It provides us organization because these patients need care quick,” she said.

The larger room features a mobile and adjustable digital X-ray unit on a trolley, a bedside ultrasound machine and an infusion device capable of quickly warming fluids in the blood and getting more vital fluid to the person faster, noted Dr. Heath Dorion, a trauma surgeon. Infusion is essential for treating someone in shock, he explained.

A person who suffers a broken femur, for example, can have X-rays done there, eliminating the need to move the patient elsewhere, Dr. Dorion continued. The centralized location also makes it simpler to prioritize care, he said.

Types of trauma the section is equipped to handle include brain, head and spinal-cord injuries, ruptured spleens, compound and multiple fractures and collapsed lungs, Mace-Vadjunec noted.

The most common causes of such injuries are vehicular crashes and falls, she pointed out.

Mace-Vadjunec explained that increases in traumatic injuries tend to be seasonal. In summer, there are a lot of car, motorcycle and all-terrain-vehicle crashes; in winter, a larger number of indoor and outdoor falls occur, she said.

The room also is designed to provide pediatric care for youngsters who suffer such injuries, Mace-Vadjunec and Dr. Dorion said. Care for children is based largely on their height and weight, they explained.

Making that effort easier is a browselow, which looks like a large color-coded yardstick and is used to measure a child’s height.

Each color contains, for example, a list and dosages of medications and fluids to be given to a child whose height falls into that color.

Demonstrating some of the X-ray machine’s uses and applications was Pam Taybus, a radiology supervisor.

The unit can move sideways and operate at numerous angles, which provides more accurate views without films. The images are fed almost instantaneously to a computer in an adjoining room, Taybus noted.

The smaller room also has a Picture Archiving Computer System, which allows hospital personnel to pull up and zoom in on a person’s lungs, for example.

The PACS allows a trauma team to more quickly identify and treat a potential injury, Taybus noted.

“Doctors can see the images a lot faster and make their decisions,” she added.

For nearly 15 years, St. E’s has been a Level 1-care facility, meaning that it also provides injury- prevention services and community outreach, noted Mace-Vadjunec.

Last year, the hospital treated about 2,000 trauma cases, and about 20 percent of its patients overall are transferred from other facilities, she explained.

ST. ELIZABETH

Fast facts

Some quick facts about St. Elizabeth Health Center trauma victims:

92 percent suffered blunt-force injuries.

8 percent suffered penetrating injuries.

74 percent required trauma/alert team activation.

St. Elizabeth’s trauma program has a 97.6 percent survival rate, which is above the national trauma standard as reported by the National Trauma Database.

Source: Humility of Mary Health Partners