What is Trauma?
Trauma is a sudden, life-threatening injury that can happen to anyone at any time. Serious injuries can result from car accidents and natural disasters, people sometimes accidentally or deliberately hurt each other, and sometimes there are freak accidents that are impossible to predict. With many critical injuries, victims must receive care within a very short period of time to prevent death or disability. Often the window of opportunity to save a life or prevent permanent damage is an hour or less. Health care providers refer to this time period as the “golden hour.”
Trauma Centers
When injuries are severe, the trauma victim’s best chance to survive and to prevent other permanent damage is transportation to a Trauma Center. In order to be considered a trauma center, a hospital must meet specific criteria as outlined by the Department of State Health Services. Doctors and nurses at a Trauma Center have had special training and can quickly evaluate the patient and start the appropriate treatments. Most trauma centers are larger hospitals located in urban areas. Some rural and/or smaller hospitals have also committed resources and maintain additional criteria to expedite care and transfers to large facilities.
Rural areas may not have the means to provide this full continuum of resources; therefore, preventable death rates due to trauma in these areas may be considerably higher than urban areas. It has been estimated that such rates could be as high as 85%. The problem is further compounded because the large urban centers, who usually have the appropriate resources available, are overloaded with patients and may not be able to take rural trauma transfers.
What is the RAC?
In 1992 the Texas Board of Health divided the state into 22 regions called “trauma service areas.” A regional advisory council (“RAC”) was formed in each region to develop and implement the trauma system for that region. Since no funding was available when the program was implemented, these councils were formed and the work was done by dedicated volunteers in various medical professions. Our goal is to fully implement the statewide trauma system in order to reduce the number of trauma incidents, preventable deaths, and reduce the severity of trauma-related disability, and to make sure that all Texas trauma victims receive the best care possible. For the past few years, we have also been helping hospitals make sure they are prepared to respond to a bioterrorism attack or a wide-scale natural disaster.
The Texas “J” Regional Advisory Council ("J" RAC) is an organization of local citizens representing all health care entities within Texas Trauma Service Area "J" (TSA "J"). The “J” RAC was chartered by the Texas Department of Health Bureau of Emergency Management to develop, implement, and monitor regional emergency services and to oversee trauma system networking. 17 counties are included in TSA “J”. Participant volunteers are hospitals, physicians, nurses, emergency medical service (EMS) providers, and other individuals interested in trauma care.
Trauma System
To achieve the goal of making effective trauma care available to every citizen, the RAC’s are working to help coordinate all the resources that are needed for the system to work. These resources include communication systems, trained responders (such as paramedics, EMT’s and first responders who provide immediate care for the patient at the scene of the injury or en route to the trauma center). Emergency personnel need to know which hospitals have the facilities and personnel to function as trauma centers and they need to be able to communicate with these hospitals on the way so that the victim can be treated as quickly as possible. When a natural disaster affects Texas, efficient communication is needed to send the injured to hospitals where they can be cared for. The hospitals need to have trauma teams in their emergency departments who are trained in many different health disciplines. And that’s not all. The RACs have not only focused on coordination of treatment for trauma victims but also work with their communities to prevent accidents.
Our Progress So Far
All 22 RACs have developed regional EMS/Trauma systems. The number of hospitals in Texas that are designated trauma centers has increased from 100 to 246. An EMS/Trauma System Fund was approved by the state legislature in 1997 and the RACs have coordinated the distribution of these funds to the hospitals and emergency service provider. A small percentage of the fund actually reimburses hospitals who have provided trauma care to patients who cannot pay for it. Computer systems have been set up so that emergency room personnel who need to get a trauma victim to a trauma center can quickly identify which hospitals are available and are able to treat the patient. In addition, the system provides contact information so that the transfer can be coordinated. Texas J RAC participates in several statewide and community programs such as Shattered Dreams, the Yellow Ribbon Program, and Project Rescue Me.
How Can I Help?
Our friends in the community, both local companies and individuals, have expressed an interest in donating to the RAC, particularly to help purchase supplies for our programs that educate our children, and to allow us to expand these programs. If you would like to help, please contact the RAC office at 432-563-5554.
