Trauma Registry: Improving Patient Outcomes
The basis of a trauma program is the disease-specific data that are collected in a uniform manner. The purpose of which is to describe the injury, events around the injury, pre-hospital care, hospital course, diagnostic and intervention procedures, outcomes, and any complications the patients may have. Trauma data is used to drive injury prevention efforts. It is assessed regularly to ensure the highest quality outcomes for patients. The trauma registry staff work closely with the Trauma Medical Director, Trauma Nursing Director, Trauma Nurse Coordinators, and Injury Prevention Coordinator to use data to improve quality, performance, injury prevention, and guide clinical practice.
The trauma registry team consists of data abstraction specialists with education and experience necessary to collect high quality data. Trauma registry professionals must maintain ongoing education regarding injury coding, injury scoring, ICD 10 coding. Then they are eligible to obtain certifications specific to trauma data abstraction. Precise data validation processes occur prior to submitting data to the required national and state agencies (TQIP, NTDS, and the State of Idaho).
Trauma registry staff are required to participate in ongoing education by taking (fill it in). They also must attend Performance Improvement monthly meetings and the Trauma Education Conference. They have to participate in TQIP monthly webinars and quizzes, and maintain (XX) numbers of continuing education hours per year.