Healthy People 2010 - With Annotations

Clinical Preventive Care

1-13. Increase the number of Tribes, States, and the District of Columbia with trauma care systems that maximize survival and functional outcomes of trauma patients and help prevent injuries from occurring.

Target: All Tribes, States, and the District of Columbia.

Baseline: 5 States had trauma care systems in 1998.

Target setting method: Total coverage.

Data sources: State EMS Directors Survey, National Association of State EMS Directors; IHS (Tribal data are developmental).

A trauma care system is an organized and coordinated effort in a defined geographic area to deliver the full spectrum of care to injured patients. The main goals of the system are to match the available trauma care resources in a community, region, or State with the needs of individual patients and to ensure that patients have rapid access to the acute care facility and rehabilitation services they need. In a trauma care system, prehospital, acute care, and rehabilitation services are integrated and administered by a public agency that provides leadership, coordinates service delivery, establishes minimum standards of care, designates trauma centers (which offer 24-hour specialized treatment for the most severely injured patients), and fosters ongoing system evaluation and quality improvement.

Trauma care systems traditionally have focused on preventing adverse outcomes in the event of injury. Many trauma care professionals and people in the public health field believe that trauma care systems also should contribute to the prevention of injuries.(66) Trauma care professionals are in a good position to provide leadership in injury surveillance, clinical preventive services, and communitywide injury prevention programs. Recent Federal initiatives in trauma care have resulted in the design of a model system that incorporates public information, education, and prevention of injuries as key features.(67)

Results of a national survey conducted in 1993 indicated that only 5 States had complete trauma systems, but 19 other States and the District of Columbia had at least some trauma system components in place.(68) A survey of all 50 States and the District of Columbia in 1998 again indicated that only 5 States satisfied all trauma care system criteria.(69) However, results from this survey also showed that 37 other States and the District of Columbia had at least some trauma system components in place.

Read Operational Definition for this Objective

Read Overview of Injuries

Back to HP 2010 Injury Objectives Page

Rev. 20-Aug-2001 at 06:51 hours.