AIDHC Achieves Trauma Designation

In January 2009, Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children was designated a Pediatric Level II Trauma Center by the State of Delaware. This designation was awarded following a year of operating as a provisional Level II Pediatric Trauma facility, an intensive site visit by the American College of Surgeons, who approved duPont Hospital for verification for a full 3-year term in December, and final designation by the Delaware Division of Public Health. The Hospital is now the only Pediatric Level II Trauma Center in Delaware.

Achieving and maintaining this verification is an arduous process. Some of the stringent requirements include 1) a rapid response from the attending trauma surgeon to trauma activations, within 15 minutes of patient arrival in the Emergency Department, 2) in-house OR and anesthesia personnel, 3) prompt neurosurgery response, 4) rapid access to CT and MRI, 5) prompt orthopedic response, and 6) a pediatric critical care service and ICU. Numerous other surgical specialties and ancillary services must be available.

The commitment to becoming a trauma center is huge, and must be embraced by the entire organization. Injury is the number one killer of children with over 20,000 deaths annually due to trauma. More children die from trauma than cardiac, infection and cancer combined and the morbidity due to traumatic injury has far reaching effects on both the child and the family. Becoming a Level II Pediatric Trauma Center was the right thing to do.

Diane Hochstuhl MSN RN NP-C
Director, Trauma and Critical Care Transport Programs