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Lakeland to Become Designated Trauma Facility
Nov 29, 2016

When a major accident or traumatic injury arises, every minute counts. In order to increase the efficiency and quality of care for injured patients, the state of Michigan is implementing the Michigan Statewide Trauma System—a system of hospitals across the state which are designated as trauma facilities.

In 2017, Lakeland Medical Center, St. Joseph; Lakeland Hospital, Niles; and Lakeland Hospital, Watervliet will complete the process to become Level III and IV designated trauma facilities.

“The overall goal of becoming a designated trauma facility is to improve health outcomes for those who are injured,” said Alisa Vohs, Trauma Program Coordinator, Lakeland Health. “In select emergency situations, if we aren’t designated as a trauma facility it may result in needing to transfer a patient to another facility.”

One requirement to receive the designation includes having a plan for when a disaster happens. Through the recent emergency preparedness drills at Lakeland, the emergency department was able to experience what it would be like to have an influx of patients in need of a surgical procedure.

“It was great that Dr. Craig Kline, Trauma Medical Director, came in on his day off to help work in the emergency room during the drill in St. Joseph,” said Alisa. “Because of the drill, we aren’t only prepared to become a designated trauma facility, we were also able to experience and identify the things we did well, as well as many opportunities for growth. Those opportunities include having a surgeon in the emergency department to help facilitate which patients need to be operated on, having a radio and vest to make it easy for team members to identify the facilitating surgeon, and having a way to mass page other surgeons to help assist.”

Click here to learn more about the Michigan Statewide Trauma Center