Having trouble viewing? View this as a webpage

April 2025

Iowa Trauma Bulletin

Trauma System News & Updates for Iowa Hospital Trauma Programs

Congratulations 2025 Great Iowa Nurses!

Congratulations to this year's 100 Great Iowa Nurses, recognized for routinely going above and beyond every day and taking the extra step to ensure safe, compassionate care for their patients. We would like to commend two of the Trauma Program Mangers for being selected on this prestigious list:

• Cam Penning - Grundy County Memorial Hospital
• Mandy Schiefert - Story County Medical Center

Trauma Center Information Request

Iowa is undergoing a Trauma System Consultation by the American College of Surgeons in September. The process includes submission of a comprehensive application to gather information that accurately illustrates Iowa's trauma system. Please take a few minutes to fill out the following survey to help us gather information from each trauma center (only one survey per hospital is needed).

You may click or scan the QR code below or visit https://go.iowa.gov/mccW:

Trauma Program Managers' Corner

Monthly Trauma Program Manager (TPM) Webinar

There will not be a TPM webinar in April. 

Previously recorded TPM webinars:

Did you miss last month's webinar? No problem! Previously recorded TPM webinars and materials can be found posted within the Trauma Program Manager Manual website at this link in the "Recorded Education" section.

Q&A of the Month

Q: What patients qualify for a trauma activation?

A: Trauma centers may customize their activation criteria based on available resources, as long as they are clearly defined and the highest level of activation includes the following minimum criteria:

Typically, trauma centers have a tiered trauma activation policy that is based on predetermined criteria, including physiologic, anatomic, mechanism of injury, and comorbidities. Level IV hospitals with limited resources may only have one level of trauma activation, if the trauma team response expectations are unchanged with additional criteria. 

Additional potential criteria for trauma team activation should be evaluated and revised through the trauma Performance Improvement and Patient Safety (PIPS) process to ensure patients requiring resources of the trauma team are appropriately identified. 

Trauma Tip of the Month

All trauma centers are required to have audit filters to review and improve adult and pediatric patient care. Trauma programs often overlook the pediatric population when formulating performance improvement metrics. It is encouraged to regularly review audit filters, ensure they are relevant to the program, and adjust accordingly. Remain fluid and avoid stagnancy in monitoring your trauma center performance!

Stop the Bleed Update If you are a registered Stop the Bleed instructor, the instructor portal has recently been updated with improvements including the new American College of Surgeons (ACS) Stop the Bleed course. The new course features slides with more images and less text, an easily adaptable format to be relevant to the community being taught, and greater emphasis on the anatomy of how blood flows through the body.   Visit the official Stop the Bleed website for more information.

ImageTrend Patient Registry

The 2025 Trauma Patient Data Dictionary DRAFT is completed and under review by the Data Management Committee. If you are interested in reviewing and providing feedback to the updated data dictionary (before April 15, 2025) or interested in joining the Data Management Committee, please contact Dr. Nicolas Foss. 

Dr. Nicolas Foss, MS
Epidemiologist
nicolas.foss@hhs.iowa.gov or 515.985.9627

Trauma System Advisory Council (TSAC)

Iowa's Trauma System Advisory Council (TSAC) consists of seven voting members and serves in a leadership role to develop and support the trauma system. The council provides subject matter expert recommendations to Iowa HHS on issues and strategies to achieve optimal trauma care delivery throughout the state. The committee meets quarterly, on the third Tuesday of the month from 1:00 - 4:00 p.m. All trauma partners and colleagues are encouraged to attend. These meetings regularly have 100+ participants, which demonstrates impressive statewide trauma system engagement.

Upcoming TSAC meeting:

• April 15, 2025, at 1:00 p.m.
  Microsoft Teams
  Join the meeting now
  Meeting ID: 236 616 010 330
  Passcode: rX2Uo3tc

  ---

  Dial in by phone

  +1 469-998-6046,,219674260# United States, Dallas

  Find a local number
  Phone conference ID: 219 674 260#

Partner Sharing Events & Educational Opportunities

National Distracted Driving Awareness Month

April is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month. Join the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) distracted driving prevention campaign by following and spreading this lifesaving message: Don't Drive Distracted. Eyes Forward.

For more information, visit https://www.nhtsa.gov/risky-driving/distracted-driving

Trauma PI and Loop Closure Webinar

Many trauma programs struggle with the high volume of cases that need to go through the performance improvement (PI) process. In these centers, program leaders often worry that they are making unacceptable trade-offs between quality and quantity. This webinar will take a close look at a key concept in trauma PI that can help program leadership teams achieve solid results with greater efficiency — selectively using “case-specific review” and “aggregate review” to close the loop on more PI issues while ensuring quality.

Topic: Trauma PI Strategy: Leveraging "Case Review vs. Aggregate Review" for More Efficient Loop Closure

Speaker: Angela Chisolm, MBA/HCM, BSN, RN, CFRN, TCRN

When: Wednesday, April 16, 2025, 1:00 p.m.

Where: Zoom webinar

McSwain Third Thursday Trauma Talk

Topic: "Hot Controversies in Traumatic Arrest: What do the Experts Say? Speakers: Joel Demers & Rommie Duckworth When: Thursday, April 17, 2025, 8:00 p.m. Where: Virtual webinar

Trauma Team Activation Webinar

Evaluation of trauma team activation criteria is critical to good patient care, but the methods that most programs are using are unsatisfying. In this session, we will discuss trauma triage, activation criteria, and how to justify team activation fees to an outside observer or government officials that may be looking to root out fraud and abuse.

Topic: "Critical Evaluation and Justification for Trauma Activation Criteria: A Novel Methodology for Calculating Over and Under Triage"

Speaker: David Morris, MD, FACS - Trauma Medical Director, Intermountain Healthcare Canyons and Desert Regions

When: Tuesday, April 22, 2025, 11:00 a.m.

Where: Virtual webinar

IHA Iowa Trauma Coordinators Spring Conference

Join Iowa trauma coordinators to explore issues in trauma care. Topics will help participants effectively care for trauma patients, improve hospital trauma programs and shape the future of trauma care in Iowa’s hospitals. Sessions include presentations about trauma verification, pediatric farm injuries, role of a medical examiner and mass causalities. View the conference brochure for more information.

What: Iowa Hospital Association's (IHA) Iowa Trauma Coordinators (ITC) Spring Conference

When: Tuesday, April 29, 2025, 8:45 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Where: 100 E. Grand Ave. Suite 100, Des Moines, IA 50309

Continuing Education: The Iowa Board of Nursing has approved the Iowa Hospital Association as a provider (No. 4) of continuing education for nurses. Participants are eligible for 5.0 contact hours if they attend all sessions in their entireties. Partial credit for individual sessions will not be granted. Participants can submit evaluations for this event to the Iowa Board of Nursing.

Every day at HHS, we work to improve the lives of our fellow Iowans. As an agency it is important to keep focused on our mission; to help Iowans achieve healthy, safe, stable, and self-sufficient lives through the programs and services we provide. 

For more information or if you have communications to share with the group, please contact:

iowahhsbemts@hhs.iowa.gov