Trauma Service

History

Trauma care has been a focus for The Alfred Hospital for over a century.  Through two World Wars, the Korean and Vietnam Wars and the height of the Road Toll War of the late 1960's and 1970's, The Alfred staff have committed to improve the care of the trauma patient.

The Accident Clinic, the introduction of the Motor Accident Board of Trauma Surgeons in 1984, the TAC Trauma Service, the Trauma Service of The Department of General Surgery 1985, the Trauma Centre and Helipad in 1989, Trauma ICU and dedicated Trauma ward and the establishment of the Professorial Trauma Department in its own right, have all been steps in the evolution of a world standard Trauma Service. 

Fundamental to that has been the involvement of the specialist surgical, diagnostic, ancillary medical and nursing services.  The Victorian State Trauma System established in the late 1990's was the final step in the provision of an integrated system of trauma care.

The Alfred Trauma Registry

The Alfred Trauma Registry, based within the Trauma Service was established in late 1988, and serves to detail all major and selected minor trauma work undertaken at The Alfred.

The Registry collects patient information from all major trauma admission, all trauma ICU admissions, all trauma transfers, and all deaths after injury. The main functions of The Alfred Trauma Registry are to chronicle trauma activity at The Alfred, monitor quality and service delivery and to supply information to the Victorian State Trauma Registry.

The scope of the Registry has grown considerably since its beginnings, and is linked to the clinical unit with ongoing exchange of information.  The Registry thus provides a major trauma database for trauma related research activities largely derived from the considerable major trauma dataset.

The Trauma Registry also provides information for, and contributes to, both The Alfred Trauma Management and Quality Improvement Committee and The Alfred Trauma Morbidity and Mortality Subcommittee.

Trauma Admission Activity 1st July 2008 – 30th June 2009

National Trauma Research Institute (NTRI), Alfred Campus

Research involving the Trauma Service is coordinated by the National Trauma Research Institute:

http://www.ntri.org.au

For research regarding:

• Trauma Systems
• Trauma Reception
• Trauma Resuscitation

Contact M.Fitzgerald@alfred.org.au

• Operative and Peri-operative care
• Trauma Quality Assurance

Contact R.Gruen@alfred.org.au

• Trauma Nursing

Contact E.Saliba@alfred.org.au

• Physical Therapy

Contact M.Dixon@alfred.org.au

Positions in Trauma Service

Trauma Service provides positions for:

• Trauma Surgeons

• Trauma Reception and Resuscitation Physicians

• International Fellows (recently from Thailand, China, UK, Saudi Arabia and Germany)

• Advanced Trainees (The Alfred Trauma Service has 2 Accredited 6 month positions for an Advanced Trainee in Surgery and an Advanced Trainee in Emergency Medicine).

• Medical Students

For any inquiries please contact Ms. Kim Williams.

Articles

• Black Saturday: the immediate impact of the February 2009 bushfires in Victoria, Australia
  Peter A. Cameron, Biswadev Mitra, Mark Fitzgerald, Carlos D. Scheinkestel, Andrew Stripp, Chris Batey, Louise Niggemeyer, Melinda Truesdale, Paul Holman, Rishi Mehra, Jason Wasiak, Heather Cleland. Med J Aust. 2009; 191:11-16

• Challenges to Real-Time Decision Support in Health Care
  Mark Fitzgerald, Nathan Farrow, Pamela Scicluna, Angela Murray, Yan Xiao,Colin F. Mackenzie, Chapter in - Henriksen K, Battles JB, Keyes MA, Grady ML, editors. Advancesin patient safety: New directions and alternative approaches. Vol. 2. Cultureand Redesign. AHRQ Publication No. 08-0034-2. Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; August 2008.

• Fluid Resuscitation in Major Burns
  Mitra B, Fitzgerald M, Cameron P, Cleland H, ANZ J Surg 2006; 76:35-38.

• India and the Management of Road Crashes - Towards a National Trauma System
  Fitzgerald M, Dewan Y, O'Reilly G, Mathew J, McKenna C. Indian J Surg, Aug 2006;68(4):237-43.

• Pleural decompression and drainage during trauma reception and resuscitation
  Fitzgerald M, Mackenzie C F, Marasco S, Hoyle R, Kossmann T. Injury 2008 Jan:39;9-20.

• Survival following resuscitative thoracotomy for combined left ventricle and left atrium ruptures secondary to blunt trauma
  Fitzgerald M, Basu A, Rahman F, Russell TJ, Hines J, Gooi J, Marasco S, Bezer L, Effeney P, Bunbury K. Injury (2008), 39, 1089-1092.

• The evolution of an integrated State Trauma System in Victoria, Australia
  Chris Atkin, Ilan Freedman, Jeffrey V. Rosenfeld, Mark Fitzgerald, Thomas Kossmann. Injury; 36(11):1277-1287, November 2005.

• Video as a Tool for Improving Tracheal Intubation Tasks for Emergency Medical and Trauma Care
  Colin F. Mackenzie, Yan Xiao, Fu-Ming Hu, Jacob Seagull, Mark Fitzgerald. Ann Em Med. 2007 Oct;50(4):436-442.

• Injury among Indigenous people charting a safer future: A symposium at the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons
  Russell L. Gruen, *, Kelvin Kong, Injury, Int. J. Care Injured (2008) 39S5, S1-S2

• Patterns of Errors Contributing to Trauma Mortality Lessons Learned From 2594 Deaths
  Russell L. Gruen, MD, PhD, Gregory J. Jurkovich, MD, Lisa K. McIntyre, MD, Hugh M. Foy, MD,and Ronald V. Maier, MD, Annals of Surgery • Volume 244, Number 3, September 2006

• Traumatic Brain Injury and Long-Term Quality of Life: Findings from an Australian Study
  Graeme Hawthorne,1 Russell L. Gruen,2 and Andrew H. Kaye2, JOURNAL OF NEUROTRAUMA 26:1623-1633 (October 2009)

• Crocodile Attacks in Australia: Challenges for Injury Prevention and Trauma Care
  Russell L. Gruen, World J Surg (2009) 33:1554-1561

• Emergency Medical Service (EMS) systems in developed and developing countries Bahman S. Roudsari a,*, Avery B. Nathens b, Carlos Arreola-Risa c, Peter Cameron d, Ian Civil e, Giouli Grigoriou f, Russel L. Gruen g, Thomas D. Koepsell h,i, Fiona E. Lecky j, Rolf L. Lefering k, Moishe Liberman l, Charles N. Mock m,h, Hans-Jo¨rg Oestern n, Elenie Petridou o,p, Thomas A. Schildhauer q, Christian Waydhas r, Moosa Zargar s, Frederick P. Rivara t,h, Injury, Int. J. Care Injured (2007) 38, 1001-1013

• The building blocks of a professional response to Indigenous injury
  Kelvin Konga, Russell L. Gruenb, Injury, Int. J. Care Injured (2008) 39S5, S73-S75