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The American College of Surgeons has verified Landstuhl Regional Medical Center as a Level II Trauma Center, making it the only medical facility outside the United States to hold that distinction and only one of three Level II trauma centers in the Department of Defense.
The July 16 verification means LRMC complies with 230 criteria focused on immediate and comprehensive care following trauma incidents, especially those of servicemembers injured in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The verification is good for three years. “To have an external agency such as the American College of Surgeons say, ‘Yes, you are doing exactly the right things that helps save lives,’ that is a huge morale booster for the entire staff,” said Col. (Dr.) Stephen Flaherty, chief of surgery and the trauma center director. Equally important, he said, is the message it sends to families that LRMC is providing the best care possible to their loved ones. Hospitals that have committed the resources to achieve Level II verification have shown a statistically significant decrease in morbidity and mortality, said Kathleen Martin, LRMC’s trauma program nurse director.
In 2004, Col. (Dr.) Warren Dorlac and Col. (Dr.) Ty Putnam, two Air Force trauma surgeons who were stationed at LRMC, spearheaded the efforts for LRMC to achieve Level II. They had a vision to implement a trauma and critical care service and the development of a trauma performance improvement program spearheaded efforts to achieve Level II.
Specifically, the trauma center verification includes requirements such as having board-certified surgeons, anesthesia services available 24/7, operating rooms meeting prescribed standards for equipment and staffing, and a continuing education program. For LRMC it has meant the addition of providing critical care services and dialysis treatment.
Under the category of education, Dr. Eastman said it is vital that LRMC physicians make time to document their work here because “virtually all that we’ve learned about trauma has come from war,” and that LRMC has adapted what he described as a “revolutionary approach to trauma systems.”
Among the advances he noted are screening all servicemembers injured downrange for brain injury, prevention of extremity compartment syndrome, more aggressive uses of tourniquets and the development and implementation of Critical Care Air Transport Teams that deliver patients from downrange and hand off to the intensive care unit at LRMC.
Implementing similar CCATT teams in civilian practice, especially in future disasters and in remote areas such as Alaska and Wyoming, “is going to save lives in the U.S. and many many other countries,” said Dr. Eastman. “It’s all about getting the right patient to the right place at the right time, and LRMC does it as good as anyone.”
