Letter to the Editor

Letters to the Editor

Monday, June 18, 2012

Traumatic

injuries will be

focus of program

To the Editor:

On Wednesday, June 20, the Indiana State Department of Health will hold a Trauma Listening Session from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Landsbaum Center for Health Education, 1433 N. 6 1/2 Street, Terre Haute.

Traumatic injuries are the No. 1 killer of Hoosiers under the age of 45. Motor vehicle accidents, falls and farm accidents are just a few of the things that often result in traumatic injuries that kill young people in the prime of their lives. These deaths come at a price: Health costs, lost productivity and emotional distress.

Indiana has emergency medical services providers, trauma centers and a trauma registry to track these most severe of injuries, but we are one of only nine states that do not have an integrated statewide trauma system. The Wabash Valley Chapter of the Emergency Nurses Association and the state health department are working together to change that.

Trauma systems correctly identify patients who need trauma care, anticipate needed resources for trauma treatment, route patients to the correct facility and improve care through a quality improvement process. Where trauma systems are in place, they are shown to save lives. When trauma patients are transported, by ground or by air, to trauma centers, the preventable death rates drop by 15-30 percent.

The Trauma Listening Session on June 20 will include displays and information by the Indiana State Department of Health's Division of Trauma and Injury Prevention staff, along with local stakeholders including hospitals and local EMS providers. The goal is for Hoosiers to learn more about trauma, learn how state and local agencies currently respond to trauma, learn how a trauma system could help the state and, most importantly, gather personal stories of how trauma has affected those in Indiana.

In our eight-county area, trauma killed more than 170 people and hospitalized more than 900 in 2009. With your help and a statewide trauma system, we can save lives, reduce chronic disability and decrease community care costs.

Kelly Mills RN CEN

President Wabash Valley

Chapter 401

Indiana Emergency Nurses

Association

Terre Haute