PORTLAND, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The American College of Surgeon (ACS) Committee on Trauma has verified Randall Children’s Hospital at Legacy Emanuel as a Level 1 pediatric trauma center, making it the first in Oregon and the first children’s hospital in the Pacific Northwest to receive this premier status. There are approximately 50 ACS-verified Level 1 pediatric trauma centers across the country.
This recognition highlights the hospital’s commitment and holistic approach to improving the care of injured children, ensuring every child access to pediatric specialists and expertise and providing the highest level of care for the most critically injured pediatric patients. The verification is also an extension of the long-standing expertise in trauma care offered at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center, which has been an ACS-verified Level 1 trauma center since 1988 and is home to the Legacy Oregon Burn Center – the only facility of its kind between Seattle and Sacramento.
“Randall Children’s Hospital is a leader in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest and this achievement in pediatric trauma highlights the hospital’s approach to comprehensive care for each patient,” said Bronwyn Houston, president of Randall Children’s Hospital. “I am so proud of our incredible team. Receiving the ACS verification is an outstanding testament to their dedication and commitment to providing the highest level of care.”
Randall Children’s Hospital recognizes that children have different needs, illnesses and injuries than adults. That is why the hospital has a children’s emergency department (CED) designed just for kids, open 24 hours a day. Studies have shown that children have better results when treated at a hospital that specializes in pediatric care. The children’s emergency department is staffed by doctors and nurses who specialize in children’s emergency care and the location on the Legacy Emanuel campus provides quick access to pediatric medical and surgical specialists, as well as experts in trauma, burn and critical care. In addition to trauma-related care, the medical team in the CED treat over 27,000 patients each year with various levels of injuries and life-threatening illnesses.
The process to achieve ACS verification is voluntary and means that the hospital and staff are required to meet stringent and essential criteria that ensure trauma care capability and institutional performance as outlined by the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma’s published guidelines. The hospital is currently working on its Level 1 pediatric surgical center verification to be finalized in 2018.
“We are very proud that several years of diligence and hard work by the entire institution has led to verification of our center as a Level 1 American College of Surgeons Pediatric Trauma Center. This distinction means that we meet or exceed national standards established for medical centers treating the most severely injured children and their families,” said Mubeen Jafri, MD, pediatric trauma medical director.
Some requirements and attributes of an ACS-verified pediatric trauma program include:
- Pediatric specialists in neurosurgery, radiology, anesthesia, orthopedics, trauma surgery and critical care medicine who are available to care for children 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and meet additional standards of a Level 1 trauma center.
- Dedicated trauma social worker and trauma-credentialed nurses.
- Commitment to partner with hospitals throughout the state to improve the care of injured children in their communities, as well as at the Level 1 trauma center.
- The highest level of staffing, skills, and facilities to provide pediatric trauma care to injured patients.
- Performance improvement efforts to ensure that each patient experiences the best possible outcome by providing a continuum of care from the emergency department to our inpatient rehabilitation program, the only program of its kind in the state of Oregon.
The American College of Surgeons is a scientific and educational association of surgeons that was founded in 1913 to improve the quality of care for the surgical patient by setting high standards for surgical education and practice. Longstanding achievements have placed the ACS in the forefront of American surgery and have made it an important advocate for all surgical patients.
About Randall Children’s Hospital
Randall Children’s Hospital is one of Oregon’s largest providers of pediatric inpatient and trauma services and is part of Legacy Health’s seven-hospital system. Randall Children’s Hospital opened its new nine-story, 165-bed home in Portland in February 2012. With a medical staff of more than 600 physicians, including pediatric medical and surgical specialists, sub-specialists, hospitalists and community pediatricians, the hospital receives over 100,000 patient visits per year.
