The American College of Surgeons is the guiding body for most trauma programs. RESPOND addresses over 25 of the ACS “Orange Book” requirements – and that’s just with Arrivals and Review.

What can Arrivals Do For Your Trauma Program?

  • Tracking arrival time for staff is key for ACS and state verification.Arrivals addresses this by automatically tracking staff arrivals, their roles and their response times.This helps you meet 16 different ACS requirements1 regarding trauma team arrivals.
  • A recent study2 has shown that automatic arrivals tracking helps to bring centers into compliance with ACS rules.In this study, it was shown that paper flow documentation was consistently below ACS requirements, however “after documentation was supplemented with RFID badge swipes data, physician arrival time documentation for full activations rose to 90% and compliance rose to 84%,”3 meeting and exceeding the ACS requirements for the first time.
  • The study also noted that having automated arrival tracking benefits the clinicians in other ways as well.The scribing nurse can be more focused on recording clinical data and is more available to assist in the trauma if needed.
  • In the case of an audit by an insurance company, Arrivals proves what staff attended a trauma event.It also ensures that the right number and type of staff are attending.Consults can be tracked as well, ensuring accurate billing.
  • Significant cost savings can also be associated with the RESPOND Arrivals system, as data can automatically flow into your EHR and/or Trauma Registry system, saving valuable staff time (this can be hundreds of hours per year) and ensuring data accuracy, allowing your registrars, scribes, and nurses to focus on clinical documentation and patient care.

What can Review Do For Your Trauma Program?

  • The RESPOND Review system can be a key component of a trauma center’s Performance Improvement Program and has many clinical benefits. RESPOND Review allows a trauma program manager to analyze their team’s performance and ensure guidelines are being followed, as well as quickly address issues when they arise.
  • It can also be used as a peer review tool, allowing staff to consistently focus on communication, procedures and improvement. This is an essential element during trauma performance team review meetings and is held in high regard by ACS during verification and reverification visits.
  • By using RESPOND Review as part of your PI process, the system can be a tool to help in addressing 14 different ACS requirements4.
  • Previously, finding a video capture system that was in compliance with hospital and state laws was difficult, but RESPOND understands the issues facing trauma programs and can work with your program to ensure full compliance. With the RESPOND Review system, video recording can be done in a compliant and secure way, including:
    • Automatic deletion of trauma event recordings after a set amount of time
    • 256-bit encryption to ensure safe storage of all events
    • Full audit logging that tracks viewing of recordings
    • Valuable insight on team performance, ensuring hospital policies are met and standard practices are being followed, resulting in improvements to patient safety and outcomes
References:

1 Committee on Trauma, American College of Surgeons. (2014) Resources For Optimal Care of the Injured Patient. CD nos. 2-4, 2-8, 2-9, 5-11, 5-14, 5-15, 5-16, 6-7, 8-2, 8-4, 8-6, 11-2, 11-33, 15-1, 16-1, 16-19. Retrieved from https://facs.org.

2 Stankiewicz S, Kar R, Hadoulis A, et al. (November 13, 2018) Implementation of a Radio-frequency Identification System to Improve the Documentation and Compliance of Attending Physicians’ Arrival to Trauma Activations. Cureus 10(11): e3582. doi:10.7759/cureus.3582

3 Trauma News. (2018, December 17). Trauma team uses RFID badges to achieve compliance with Orange Book surgeon response time standard. Trauma System News. Retrieved from https://www.trauma-news.com.

4 Committee on Trauma, American College of Surgeons. (2014) Resources For Optimal Care of the Injured Patient. CD nos. 2-17, 2-18, 2-19, 3-3, 5-10, 5-20, 5-22, 5-25, 9-8, 10-36, 11-39, 15-1, 16-1, 16-19. Retrieved from https://facs.org.

Looking for even more reading material?

Download our reference document below, updated frequently with new studies, journal articles, and references on how video review and automated arrivals tracking is improving trauma care around the world

 Reference document