Organization and Roles of the Trauma Team

Kim, Namryeol

Abstract

In a narrow sense, the trauma team is intra-hospital organization that perform the initial assessment and resuscitation for the victims. Cooperation with the administrative and governance body of the hospital is essential for the function as a trauma center. The hospital could be as a core of the trauma care system with this support. Essential to this core position is a hospital trauma program that regulates and supports the trauma team activities. This trauma program consists of the hospital governance, administration, the trauma team and leader, trauma program manager, the registrar and the multidisciplinary committee of the performance improvement program. The essential elements of the trauma team include a trauma surgeon, an emergency physician, emergency department nurses, a laboratory and radiology technician, an anesthesiologist and a scribe. The team leader should be a trauma surgeon and coordinate the multidisciplinary professions in the team during the entire trauma care process. Clear criteria for the trauma team activation should be defined in advance. The composition of the team and the activation criteria may vary with the hospital capacity, the severity of injury, and the level of activation. The tiered criteria are based on clinical information from the field: physiologic and anatomic conditions and mechanism of injury and are recommended. The multidisciplinary committee for the performance improvement should monitor and assess trauma program outcomes. These activities will lead to trauma care improvements.