Barton Memorial Hospital was chosen to take part in an ongoing scientific trial by UC Davis Well being, aimed toward enhancing trauma care for youngsters within the area. The research was designed for pediatric trauma sufferers who require a switch to a better degree of care. Previous to switch, a digital connection by way of telehealth is established with the group at UC Davis to permit higher communication with sufferers and their households and to facilitate communication between medical groups. The scientific trial evaluates the added worth of a pre-transfer telehealth go to for sufferers and their households.
The telehealth platform is named a Digital Pediatric Trauma Heart (VPTC). It’s utilized when pediatric sufferers are being thought-about for switch to UC Davis Kids’s Hospital, a Stage I Pediatric Trauma Heart. The VPTC introduces dad and mom to a liaison at UC Davis previous to a affected person’s switch. This go to not solely improves communication between the households and the hospital, but additionally helps scale back affected person and household misery in the course of the switch course of.
“The flexibility of our nurses and medical doctors to really see the affected person and talk about the perfect plan for the affected person and household is invaluable,” mentioned James Marcin, director of the Heart for Well being and Expertise at UC Davis Well being. “With this program, we’re in a position to discuss by way of video with the dad and mom and members of the family to organize them for what is going to occur following the switch to UC Davis. This course of might be very scary and overwhelming, particularly given the variety of nurses and medical doctors that encompass the injured baby after their arrival. We consider that making ready the household and speaking in regards to the steps that will probably be taken may help scale back stress, anxiousness, and questions relating to the pediatric trauma care course of.”
As a Stage III Trauma Heart, Barton physicians can deal with as much as a sure degree of acuity — the quantity of medically associated help wanted by a person — for traumatic accidents. As soon as the acuity degree rises above the Stage III Trauma threshold, a switch turns into mandatory.
Barton has sturdy partnerships and switch agreements in place with regional Stage II and Stage I Trauma Facilities, like UC Davis Medical Heart — the one Stage I Trauma Heart in Northern California for pediatric and grownup sufferers — to supply help for high-acuity instances rapidly and as near the affected person’s dwelling as doable.
With this program, we’re in a position to discuss by way of video with the dad and mom and members of the family to organize them for what is going to occur following the switch to UC Davis. We consider that making ready the household and speaking in regards to the steps that will probably be taken may help scale back stress, anxiousness, and questions relating to the pediatric trauma care course of.” —James Marcin
Together with establishing provider-family contact by way of telehealth, the VPTC permits physicians to just about view or share affected person medical imaging, like X-rays and CT scans, which may scale back the necessity for additional radiation, and permits them to debate remedy plans earlier than the affected person is transferred to UC Davis Kids’s Hospital.
“Not all pediatric trauma accidents require a switch, however in instances the place one is important, this telemedicine collaboration improves communication with dad and mom and caregivers, and lessens the fear issue that usually comes with traumatic accidents,” mentioned Kim Evans, trauma director and board-certified common surgeon at Barton Well being.
This program brings the experience of the UC Davis youngsters’s trauma group inside the partitions of Barton’s Emergency Division — particularly useful in a mountain group, the place lively youngsters ski, snowboard or take part in different sports activities that may trigger severe accidents.
Ten hospitals within the Northern California area are taking part on this program as a part of a two-year lively research. Barton Well being and UC Davis Well being started this collaboration on Feb. 21, 2022, which is able to run by November 2022. The medical facilities will assess whether or not having the VPTC improves communication with the household and reduces affected person and household misery earlier than cementing the association completely.
This partnership expands on an current Barton Well being and UC Davis Well being partnership. Barton at the moment works with UC Davis Kids’s Hospital to make sure that at-risk newborns have entry to UC Davis specialists and consultants, together with steerage from a neonatologist and neonatal specialists inside the pharmacy, respiratory remedy, and vitamin departments. Study extra at BartonHealth.org.
FUNDING ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: This work was (partially) supported by a Affected person-Centered Outcomes Analysis Institute (PCORI) Award [grant number IHS-2019C1-16093 to James Marcin].
DISCLAIMER: All statements on this report, together with its findings and conclusions, are solely these of the authors and don’t essentially characterize the views of the Affected person-Centered Outcomes Analysis Institute (PCORI), its Board of Governors or Methodology Committee.
