Delivering "the right patient, to the right place, the first time"

AUSTIN, Texas - (March 19, 2008) - The Seton Family of Hospitals and the Austin-Travis County EMS System are introducing a new way of delivering trauma patients by EMS to Dell Children's Medical Center of Central Texas and University Medical Center at Brackenridge.

It's called "Hot Offload". The goal: to ensure the delivery of badly injured patients to the appropriate hospital to receive the complex care needed.

According to Dr. Pat Crocker, Chief of Emergency Medicine, Dell Children's Medical Center, "Our primary mission is the delivery of the highest quality of patient care. In order to accomplish this, children must be at Dell Children's Medical Center and adults at University Medical Center Brackenridge."

Critical trauma care is all about time and getting the trauma patients to the most appropriate hospital in the shortest amount of time. When Dell Children's Medical Center of Central Texas opened on June 30, 2007, the standard of care for pediatric trauma patients in our community changed to a new higher level. Coincidently, with that change, UMC Brackenridge remains committed to offering complex adult care for trauma patients, and no longer to the pediatric population. Now, when seriously injured, parents and children will go to different specialty hospitals.

"When an adult and a child must be transported in the same ambulance, EMS will offloaded the most seriously injured patient first, then immediately transport the other patient to the second hospital." said Austin-Travis County EMS System Medical Director Ed Racht. "This is a great next step in developing an even stronger Trauma System to take care of our community. We're fortunate to have such a strong and committed relationship between the EMS System and the Hospital community. We can effectively get our most injured patients to the highest level of care in the region more rapidly and effectively. What we've collectively developed here can become a model for other state-wide systems."

Seton and Austin/Travis County EMS are sensitive to the separation of families, especially during something as sudden and frightening as a sudden traumatic event. To facilitate the separation of parents and children a real time bedside video link has been established between Dell Children's and UMC Brackenridge so that families can see and talk to each other, the next best thing to being together.

News Delivering "the right patient, to the right place, the first time"

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