ACCIDENTS AND EMERGENCY

ACCIDENTS AND EMERGENCY

MANAGEMENT OF VICTIMS OF TRAUMA

A major issue in accident and emergency medicine remains the optimal management of victims of trauma. When trauma care is fragmented and disorganized it has an unacceptably bad outcome. When prehospital care of the accident victim is suboptimal and patients are taken to hospitals without regard to surgical availability, it results in increased morbidity and mortality.

At Palmars Hospital, we have effective triage guidelines ensuring that the right patients receive the right treatment at the right time, thereby facilitating good outcomes and saving lives. Aggressive life-saving procedures are performed frequently by our physicians especially when there is blood loss or head injury. 

Care is provided by a multidisciplinary team consisting of senior medical personnel in anesthesia, accident and emergency medicine, general and orthopaedic surgery, and intensive care. All of these specialists are available 24 hours a day. 

Early recognition and rapid definitive surgical management of life-threatening injuries are key to our success at Palmars Hospital. Our properly organized trauma system ensures that accident victims do not succumb to death as a result of treatable injuries

TRAUMA SYSTEM

Palmars Hospital trauma system consists of four patient components: 

(1) Access to care;

(2) Pre-hospital care;

(3) Hospital care; and

(4) Rehabilitation;

PREHOSPITAL CARE

Death within the first hours after injury may well be prevented by high-quality care in the pre-hospital setting.

The goals therefore of pre-hospital care of the critically injured patient should be to reduce the time from injury to definitive surgical care and yet provide resuscitation that will increase the chances of the patient arriving at the hospital alive and in a reasonable condition. Other considerations must of course be cost, a mechanism to maintain skills, and the continuous evaluation of the usefulness of the various procedures.

HOSPITAL CARE

This constitutes our major strength. Organizations that retain our services find us quite dependable in emergency and trauma cases. Our emergency team is always on the ground to provide care and prevent death in such cases. Oxygen concentrators and cylinders with piped oxygen in all the rooms, and emergency room, crash cart,  ECG machines, monitors, defibrillators, AED, Suction machines, a cardiotocograph, vacuum extractors, a customized ambulance vehicle, e.t.c. are all available to aid the provision of critical and emergency care to our patients.