ANN ARBOR, MI - The University of Michigan Trauma Burn Center, part of the U-M Health System, has been reverified as a Level 1 trauma and Verified burn center by the Committee on Trauma (COT) of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) and the American Burn Association (ABA). These achievements recognize the trauma and burn center’s dedication to providing optimal care for injured patients.

Established by the American College of Surgeons in 1987, the COT’s Verification/Consultation Program for Hospitals promotes the development of trauma centers in which participants provide not only the hospital resources necessary for trauma and burn care, but also the entire spectrum of care to address the needs of all injured patients. This spectrum encompasses the pre-hospital phases through the rehabilitation process.

Verified trauma and burn centers must meet the essential criteria to ensure trauma and systematic burn care capability and institutional performance, as outlined by the COT’s Resources for Optimal Care of the Injured Patient and the ABA’s Guidelines for the Operation of Burn Centers manual.

The COT verification program does not designate trauma centers. Rather, the program provides a confirmation that a trauma center has demonstrated its commitment to providing the highest quality trauma care for all injured patients. The actual establishment and the designation of trauma centers is the function of local, regional, or state health care systems agencies, such as the local emergency medical services (EMS) authority.

There are four separate categories of verification in the COT’s program. Each category has specific criteria that must be met by a facility seeking that level of verification. The hospital has an on-site review by a team of experience trauma surgeons, who use the current Resources for Optimal Care of the Injured Patient manual as a guideline in conducting the survey.

A Level 1 Trauma Center, such as the U-M Trauma Burn Center, is a comprehensive regional resource that is a tertiary care facility central to the trauma system. Key elements include 24-hour in-house coverage by general surgeons and prompt availability of care in specialties such as orthopedic surgery, neurosurgery, anesthesiology, emergency medicine, radiology, internal medicine and critical care.

Other capabilities include cardiac, hand, pediatric, microvascular surgery, and hemodialysis. The Level 1 Trauma Center provides leadership in prevention, public education, and continuing education of the trauma team members. The Level 1 Trauma Center is committed to continued improvement through a comprehensive quality assessment program and an organized research effort to help direct new innovations in trauma care.

The ACS and ABA Consultation and Verification for Burn Centers create national standards to optimize burn care in the United States through a voluntary review of existing burn centers to ensure that such burn centers provide a systemic approach to burn care with trained and capable personnel, adequate facilities and ongoing self-assessment as outlined in the Guidelines for the Operation of Burn Centers 1998 manual.

The ACS is a scientific and educational association of surgeons that was founded in 1913 to raise the standards of surgical education and practice and to improve the care of the surgical patient. It has 59,000 members and it is the largest association of surgeons in the world. Longstanding achievements have placed the College in the forefront of American surgery and have made it an important advocate for all surgical patients.

The ABA was founded in 1967, following a series of national annual burn seminars sponsored by leading institutions in the field of burn care treatment. Since its inception, the association has been dedicated to stimulating and supporting burn-related research, education, care, rehabilitation, and prevention.

To advance these goals, the ABA sponsors a variety of educational programs, fellowships, research, teaching and publications, including the leading peer-reviewed, scientific journal in the burn field, the Journal of Burn Care & Rehabilitation.

To learn more about the U-M Trauma Burn Center, visit www.traumaburn.org.

Written by Steffanie Samuels

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