DMMC Level III Trauma Center Verification (ACS)

Deaconess Memorial Trauma Center is verified as a Level III Trauma Center by the American College of Surgeons (ACS). 

ACS Level III Verification and Designation

• Focuses on resources, personnel, and processes rather than on patient volume
• Ensures timely trauma care in communities with limited access to higher-level centers emphasizing stabilization, transfer, emergency department readiness, surgical access, and on going education and performance improvement programs
• Provides definitive trauma care for a wide range of injuries and injury severity and takes on additional responsibilities in the region related to education, system leadership, and disaster planning
• Access to operative capabilities, imaging, and blood bank services 24/7

Additional Elements of Level III Trauma Centers Include:

• Full emergency department capabilities with modern resuscitation techniques, including permissive hypotension and hemostatic resuscitation
• Stabilization and Transfer

• Have protocols for rapid evaluation, stabilization, and transfer of patients whose needs exceed available resources
• Play a critical role in regional trauma systems, ensuring timely care while facilitating transfer to higher-level centers when necessary

• Tiered Trauma Activation System

• Category 1 activation: Surgeon responds at bedside within 30 minutes
• Category 2 activation: managed by the ED team with trauma surgeon notification

• 24-hour coverage by general surgeons, as well as coverage by the specialties of orthopedic surgery, anesthesiology, emergency medicine, radiology and critical care