Administration

According to the ACS-COT (2014), the role of the TPM is to, “manage, as appropriate, the operational, personnel, and financial aspects of the trauma program. Serves as a liaison to administration, and represents the trauma program on various hospital and community committees to enhance and foster optimal trauma care” (p. 43).

Many small facilities will not have a budget under the purview of the TPM, but if a facility is lucky enough to have a budget dedicated to trauma, the coordinator should manage it as appropriate.  The TPM has eyes on the program as a whole and should know where resources should be dedicated in order to improve the quality of the program and the care provided by the facility.  Some TPM’s have the benefit of a dedicated registrar and/or community outreach coordinator.  These people should be under the direction of the TPM and all parties should have a close working relationship dedicated to the improvement of trauma care in the facility.  Some coordinators at small facilities occasionally train and recruit floor nurses or ancillary personnel on an ad hoc or volunteer basis to do data abstraction without an FTE associated with the assistance.  The bottom line is to use resources judiciously and recruit assistance wherever possible.

Serving as a liaison to administration may be as simple as meeting regularly with the facility’s Director of Nursing, or equivalent, to inform him/her of the trauma program and its accomplishments.  You may also need to keep the C-suite updated on any difficult cases or sentinel events.  Hospital administration can provide resources to the trauma program to help it be successful.  Keeping up regular communication can only help to ensure the trauma program has the resources it needs to optimally care for the injured patient.

Representing the trauma program on various hospital and community committees is an excellent way to bring the trauma program visibility within the hospital and in the community at large.  Many hospitals have pain, fall, skin, quality, critical care, or various other committees that, along with the individual trauma PIPS and multidisciplinary committees, can help make the program well-rounded and visible to staff.  Participation in these various committees can also lead to an easier time with buy-in, when it comes to practice changes instituted by the trauma program. It will be beneficial to the program, if the TPM looks into the healthcare coalition’s emergency preparedness activities and tries to engage with key stakeholders.  The Healthcare Coalition may have access to grants and resources otherwise unavailable to the TPM. Community committees may be a little harder to come across, but efforts to volunteer with community based organizations may be beneficial to building bridges within the surrounding area, so that, when the program does have a targeted outreach activity, there may be already established partnerships with mutual goals to utilize.

Examples of community based volunteer organizations include, but certainly are not limited to:

• Mothers Against Drunk Driving
• The Boys and Girls Clubs of America
• The American Red Cross
• The Trauma Informed Care Project