Hospital Hosts Regional Trauma Team Training
Posted on Friday, September 28th, 2007
Rural Trauma: At the trauma team training in Marietta were (clockwise from lower right) Lee Martin, Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) Trauma Division; Darin Farrell, administrator of Arbuckle Memorial Hospital in Sulphur; Dale Adkerson, OSDH Trauma Division; Dr. Timothy Cathey, instructor, director of OSDH Trauma Division; Dr. Roxie Albrecht, instructor, director of trauma and surgical critical care of OU Medical School; A. Alex Garcia and Cassie Sallee, physician assistants with Mercy Health/Love County Hospital and Clinic.
Medical personnel of the hospital, clinic, and ambulance service make a profound difference in the care of trauma patients.
Working in a county that straddles an Interstate highway, they come to the aid of critically injured people frequently, rendering advanced life support, and, often, summoning air ambulances directly to the scene.
They impact lives through quick action at accident sites, through rapid transport to the local emergency room for further evaluation or care, or by recognizing the need to bypass the local ER and transfer patients directly to a trauma center in Ardmore, Oklahoma City, or elsewhere in Oklahoma or Texas.
Certifying and enhancing all these assessment, resuscitation, and transfer skills is the purpose of rural trauma team development courses.
Mercy Health/Love County Hospital, Clinic, and EMS served as host site for a regional training on September 24 in its new training building adjoining the ambulance bay.
Twelve Mercy Health/Love County physicians, physician assistants, registered nurses, and medics were joined by two dozen guests from Arbuckle Memorial Hospital of Sulphur and Healdton Municipal Hospital.
Physicians from the OU Medical School and trauma development system specialists from the Oklahoma State Department of Health taught the 8-hour class. The course was sponsored by the American College of Surgeons.
In a rural trauma team, various medical staff take responsibility for distinct tasks. Among them are opening a patient’s airway, relieving breathing problems, restoring blood flow, recognizing initial brain or spinal cord injury and immobilizing to prevent secondary injury, and recognizing and relieving exposure to the elements, the instructors taught.
Decisions concerning transfer should be started as soon as possible, they said. The decision may take place “pre-hospital” at the scene or at the emergency room. Team members categorize the patient’s injuries according to trauma classifications and act on the attending physician’s advice.
Taking the class from the local hospital were physicians Dr. J.T. O’Connor, Jr., Dr. Larry Powell, Dr. Stephen Hutchins, and Dr. Vergil Smith; nurses Billie Snyder, LPN, Jan Marutzky, RN, and Joyce Lantz, RN; physician assistants Alex Garcia and Cassie Sallee; paramedic Alex Eden, emergency medical technician Jamie Hicks; and administrator Richard Barker.