CRMC-West 214 E. 23 St. Cheyenne, WY 82001
CRMC-East 2600 E. 18 St. Cheyenne, WY 82001
Health & Fitness 1620 E. Pershing, Cheyenne, WY 82001

(307) 634-CARE

Regional Trauma Center

Helistop

Trauma is anything that involves a mechanism (outside force) causing injury. Trauma encompasses everything from falling down stairs to injury from car crashes, as well as household accidents such as burns.

"We have been working on this designation for a long time, and with the commitment of key people like Richard Fermelia, M.D. (Trauma Services medical director), our CRMC Trauma registrar, and everyone in CRMC's emergency department, operating room and intensive care unit, it all came together," Dimon said.

"We work closely with the individual nursing units, Radiology, Cardiopulmonary, the lab, and emergency personnel from throughout the community such as American Medical Response ambulance service and the Cheyenne fire and police departments," she said. "Every phase of care and every team member affects the patient's outcome and is critical to providing quality patient care."

Dimon said that quality patient care is what the trauma program revolves around. She said the program is designed to provide a coordinated, systematic approach to treating the trauma patient from the initial response to an accident to rehabilitation from the trauma-related injury itself.

"Trauma is preventable. It is the No. 1 killer of people under age 44 and causes more deaths than cancer or heart disease," she points out. "Trauma has an enormous impact on the American public, not only due to injury, death and healthcare costs, but because of its impact on young people and their subsequent ability to earn an income.

She said the first line of defense in stopping trauma is injury prevention.

For example, Trauma Services participates in injury prevention such as Safe Kids of Wyoming and a child passenger safety program.

Richard Fermelia, MD, CRMC trauma services medical director, oversees the medical aspects of the program. Fermelia is a board-certified general surgeon and trained at Dallas' Parkland Hospital. "He has worked very hard and been a welcome addition to our trauma program," she said.

CRMC sponsors the annual Old West Trauma Symposium that is dedicated to the education of nurses, paramedics and emergency medical technicians in trauma treatment. The symposium provides emergency personnel with the tools for better trauma care, she said. The Old West Trauma Symposium is offered the 3rd Friday every November.

For example, the No. 1 cause of injury locally is unrestrained drivers and passengers who are in a motor-vehicle crash, followed by falls by everyone from children to the elderly. And, the Cheyenne intersections of high-injury motor-vehicle crashes are Dell Range Boulevard and Converse Avenue, Dell Range Boulevard and Yellowstone Avenue, and Yellowstone and Riding Club avenues.

The registrar said, “We look at our response times, as there is a ‘golden hour’ that is so critical for good outcomes for trauma patients.”

Trauma Respond: If an ambulance is bringing in an injured patient and calls in a “Trauma Respond,” it indicates that a serious, traumatic injury has occurred, the patient is unstable and a critical mechanism of injury (outside force) was present, such as a rollover or the person was thrown from the vehicle. “Our goal is to have the following people ready and waiting to meet the patient when he comes through the door: anesthesia, Operating Room team and a surgeon, Pastoral Care, Radiology, Lab, and Emergency Room staff.

Trauma Standby: Ambulance personnel will call a “Trauma Standby” to alert the staff to standby as a trauma patient is coming in and the patient either has such injuries or the way in which they were hurt often results in serious consequences.

Trauma Care Facilities criteria/standards include:

1) Hospital Organization
This includes an established trauma service, a trauma program director,and a trauma team with a qualified surgeon, a trauma nurse coordinator, and a multi-disciplinary trauma committee.
2) Clinical Components
The components are emergency medicine, trauma/general surgery and anesthesia to be in-house 24 hours a day, with a wide variety of board-certified specialists on call or available. The availability will be monitored by a quality-improvement program with policies in place to notify the primary physician.
3) Facility Standards
Facility must have an emergency department, surgical suites, intensive care unit, and a post-anesthesia recovery room.
4) Clinical Support Services
The service capabilities will include radiological service, clinical-laboratory service, alcohol and drug screening, social services/pastoral-care support, rehabilitation, outreach, prevention/public outreach, transfer protocol,
and quality improvement and evaluation.

The quality-improvement plan must have the following components:

• An organizational structure that facilitates the process of quality improvement;
• clearly stated goals and objectives;
• the development of standards of care;
• a process to delineate privileges for all physicians participating;
• participation in the statewide trauma registry;
• established quality indicators;
• a systematic, informed peer-review process,
• a method for computing survival probability and comparing patient outcomes.

“How we deal with trauma is so important. What we do is unique as we take each case and look at prevention, pre-hospital care, hospitalization from admission through discharge and rehabilitation."

Injury Prevention
The Wyoming Department of Health and the Cheyenne Regional Medical Center Foundation are co-sponsors of a statewide, public/private collaborative titled Safe Kids of Wyoming. This successful collaborative has a simple, but compelling mission – to reduce the number of preventable illnesses and injuries affecting Wyoming’s children. As the Regional Trauma Center for our community, Cheyenne Regional Medical Center is committed to prevention and education and this collaborative effort supports its mission.

Child Safety Seat Inspection Station

Parents and caregivers in Cheyenne now have a free and convenient way to get their child’s safety seat inspected, thanks to a new public service provided by the Safe Kids of Wyoming Campaign and its co-sponsors the Cheyenne Regional Medical Center and the Wyoming Department of Health. In September, 2002, the Campaign celebrated the grand opening of its new child safety seat inspection station located at Cheyenne Regional Medical Center in Cheyenne. Safe Kids of Wyoming is one of 30 SAFE KIDS coalitions across the country to be awarded grants from the National SAFE KIDS Campaign® to establish inspection stations in their local communities as part of the Campaign’s SAFE KIDS BUCKLE UP® child passenger safety program. The inspection station offers parents and caregivers personal instruction from certified technicians on the proper use and installation of child safety seats. The inspection station offers set hours of operation so parents and caregivers can plan their schedules accordingly. This service is good news for local families, in light of a new study that found the majority of parents attending child safety seat checkup events in Wyoming continue to make mistakes when using child restraints.

To make an appointment to have your child's car seat checked, call 633-7527.

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