National Needs Assessment for a Pediatric Trauma Toolkit: General Requirements for Moderate- and High-Volume Hospitals.

BACKGROUND: Optimal outcomes have been reported for children treated at pediatric trauma centers; however, most children are treated at nonpediatric trauma centers or nonpediatric general hospitals. Hospitals that are not verified or designated pediatric trauma centers may lack the training and level of comfort and skill when treating severely injured children. OBJECTIVE: This study focused on identifying common pediatric guidelines for standardization across all trauma centers to inform a pediatric trauma toolkit. METHODS: A needs assessment survey was developed highlighting the guidelines from an expert committee review. The purpose of the survey was to prioritize needed items for the development of a pediatric trauma toolkit. Professional trauma organizations distributed the survey to their respective memberships to ensure good representation of people who care for traumatically injured children and work in trauma centers. Deidentified survey results were analyzed with frequencies and descriptive statistics provided. Data were compared by hospital trauma verification level using a chi-square test. The value of p < .05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: A total of 303 people responded to the survey. The majority of respondents reported a high value in the creation of a pediatric trauma toolkit for the guidelines that were included. There was variability in the reported access to the guidelines, indicating a significant need for the toolkit development and dissemination. CONCLUSION: As expected, Level III centers reported the largest gaps in access to standardized pediatric guidelines and demonstrated high levels of interest and need.

Trauma Team Activation: Accuracy of Triage When Minutes Count: A Synthesis of Literature and Performance Improvement Process.

Accuracy and timeliness of trauma activations are vital to patient safety. The American College of Surgeons mandates the trauma surgeon's presence within 15 min of the patient's arrival to the emergency department (ED) 80% of the time. In 2015, at this Level II Pediatric Trauma Center, average mean activation times were approximately 16 min and activation accuracy (over- and undertriage) affected 27% of the trauma patient activations. This evidence-based quality improvement project set out to determine the most efficient method of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) intake. Communication Center (Com. Center) recordings were carefully reviewed to identify time when EMS notifies the Com. Center and actual time of trauma activation page. A timeline was formulated with assessment of time to activation and patient triage accuracy. An educational curriculum was developed as an intervention for the Com. Center staff. Education included a decision tree for trauma activations and the development of templates for our electronic health record and prompts to improve accurate activations. After additional focus groups analyzed present ED performance and the industry standard, a policy requiring only paramedic-trained staff was put in place. After implementation of the aforementioned intervention, the Com. Center performance revealed reduction in incorrect activations from 27.3% to 10.7% from 2015 to 2016. Mean activation time in January 2015 was 48.5 min before the intervention and 4.71 min postintervention in December 2016; this is a staggering reduction in activation times of 90%!

A multicenter prospective analysis of pediatric trauma activation criteria routinely used in addition to the six criteria of the American College of Surgeons.

BACKGROUND: The American College of Surgeons has defined six minimum activation criteria (ACS-6) for the highest level of trauma activations at trauma centers. The verification criteria also allow for the inclusion of additional criteria at the institution's discretion. The purpose of this prospective multicenter study was to evaluate the ACS-6 as well as commonly used activation criteria to evaluate overtriage and undertriage rates for pediatric trauma team activation. METHODS: Data were prospectively collected at nine pediatric trauma centers to examine 29 commonly used activation criteria. Patients meeting any of these criteria were evaluated for the use of high-level trauma resuscitation resources according to an expert consensus list. Patients requiring a resource but not meeting any activation criteria were included to evaluate undertriage rates. RESULTS: During the 1-year study, a total of 656 patients were enrolled with a mean age of 8 years, a median Injury Severity Score of 14, and mortality of 11%. Using all criteria, 55% of patients would have been overtriaged and 9% would have been undertriaged. If only the ACS-6 were used, 24% of patients would have been overtriaged and 16% would have been undertriaged. Among activation criteria with more than 10 patients, those most predictive of using a high-level resource were a gunshot wound to the abdomen (92%), blood given before arrival (83%), traumatic arrest (83%), tachycardia/poor perfusion (83%), and age-appropriate hypotension (77%). The addition of tachycardia/poor perfusion and pretrauma center resuscitation with greater than 40 mL/kg results in eight criteria with an overtriage of 39% and an undertriage of 10.5%. CONCLUSION: The ACS-6 provides a reliable overtriage or undertriage rate for pediatric patients. The inclusion of two additional criteria can further improve these rates while maintianing a simplified triage list for children.