A Level I trauma center can provide the highest level of care for a patient presenting after a traumatic injury. A Level IV or V trauma center will stabilize an injured patient and arrange for transfer to a higher level of care. This designation is unique for adult and pediatric facilities.
Level I Trauma Center
Level 1 is the highest or most comprehensive care center for trauma, capable of providing total care for every aspect of injury – from prevention through rehabilitation.
There are 5 levels of trauma centers: I, II, III, IV, and V. In addition, there is a separate set of criteria for pediatric level I & II trauma centers. The trauma center levels are determined by the kinds of trauma resources available at the hospital and the number of trauma patients admitted each year.
“Patients taken to Level I centers had more severe injuries, more penetrating injuries, more complications, yet similar unadjusted mortality compared with Level II centers,” researchers said.
This defines the 6 streams of the state's trauma services: MTS, Metropolitan, Urban, Regional, Rural, and Remote.
Trauma services in metropolitan Melbourne are categorised into three levels of care: Major Trauma Services, Metropolitan Trauma Services and Metropolitian Primary Care Services.
Level 1 trauma centers treat the most critical injuries that can happen: severe car accidents, falls from high places and other accidents with extreme injuries. These cases require immediate, expert care from multiple disciplines to get the patient stabilized and on the road to recovery.
Trauma centers vary in their specific capabilities and are identified by "Level" designation: Level I (Level-1) being the highest and Level III (Level-3) being the lowest (some states have five designated levels, in which case Level V (Level-5) is the lowest).
Level 2 - Emergency, potentially life-threatening (Example: patient involved in major accident with severe injuries or patient is having difficulty breathing) Level 3 - Urgent, not life-threatening (Example: patient has severe abdominal pain)
Level II (Potentially Life Threatening): A Level of Trauma evaluation for a patient who meets mechanism of injury criteria with stable vital signs pre-hospital and upon arrival.
The different levels (ie. Level I, II, III, IV or V) refer to the kinds of resources available in a trauma center and the number of patients admitted yearly. These are categories that define national standards for trauma care in hospitals. Categorization is unique to both Adult and Pediatric facilities.
Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS), developed by the American College of Surgeons, promotes the primary survey sequence as airway, breathing, circulation, disability, exposure (ABCDE).
The fourth stage of trauma healing is: radical acceptance. By this step, you will have been able to grasp the impact of the event you experienced.
Type III trauma occurs when an individual experiences multiple, pervasive, violent events beginning at an early age and continuing over a long period of time.
Young Children and Trauma. Children can experience trauma as early as infancy. In fact, young children between the ages of 0 and 5 are the most vulnerable to the effects of trauma since their brains are still in the early formative years.
Level 3 (PATIENTS requiring advanced respiratory support alone or monitoring and support for two or more organ systems. This level includes all complex PATIENTS requiring support for multi-organ failure.)
Assault/Violence (Code Grey)
Code Pink: infant abduction, pediatric emergency and/or obstetrical emergency. Code Red: fire (also someone smoking in facility) (alternative: massive postpartum hemorrhage) Code Silver: weapon or hostage situation. Code White: neonatal emergency, aggressive person or evacuation dependent on hospital.
Patients with the most serious injuries are designated a level 1 trauma, indicating a need for a larger trauma team and faster response time. The determination of trauma code criteria varies between hospitals and is based on elements such as physiologic data, types of injury, and mechanism of injury.
No one type of trauma is “worse” than another. You can even experience the same type of trauma—or even the same event—as someone else and have different reactions to it. If something hurts you, it hurts, and your natural emotional reaction is valid. It can be helpful to think about “big T” trauma and “little t” trauma.
A level 1 ICU is capable of providing oxygen, noninvasive monitoring, and more intensive nursing care than on a ward, whereas a level 2 ICU can provide invasive monitoring and basic life support for a short period.
Level 1 is for the most serious injuries, where trauma is often large and requires a fast response time. The lower levels focus on evaluating and stabilizing the person so that, if necessary, staff can transfer them to a higher level facility.
GPC modification of “priority definitions” a) Priority 1 – Critically ill or injured person requiring immediate attention; unstable patients with (deleted potentially) life-threatening injury or illness.
Primary variables and mortality
For Trauma Center Levels, the mortality rates were highest at Level 1(5.0%) and lowest at Levels III/IV combined (3.1%). The Levels I, II, and III/IV mortality levels for patients seen at night were 5.1%, 4.6%, and 3.4%, compared to day, which were 5.0%, 4.3%, and 2.9%, respectively.