The Vall d’Hebron hospital, classified as a highly complex center for the care of urgent polytraumatic patients, handles several hundred cases every year, most of them due to traffic accidents, falls and stab and gunshot wounds.
Speed in stabilizing the injured person and designing a treatment strategy is crucial and the new Trauma Center, a pioneering space inaugurated today, will save time. “The fact of being able to transfer a patient from the helicopter to the operating room in 2 minutes instead of 15 can mean life or death,” explained the Minister of Health, Manel Balcells, at the premiere of equipment that seeks to improve substantially preventable mortality in patients with polytrauma. According to the WHO, severe trauma is the eighth cause of death in the world and the first among young people.
Last year, the Vall d’Hebron treated 250 cases of the highest category of polytrauma and this year it has accumulated 218. The new facilities have an area of 814 m2 on floor -1 of the trauma, rehabilitation and burns hospital.
It has a PPT room where the patient is stabilized and space to simultaneously care for a second injured person, a new CT scan to establish the treatment strategy and two operating rooms, among other equipment. The infrastructure enables a change in the care model for the polytraumatized patient, so that it is professionals from different specialties who move around the patient and not the other way around.
Financed with European Inveat funds for the renewal of medical equipment, the Trauma Center had a construction cost of 2.25 million euros. Albert Salazar, manager of Vall d’Hebron, has described it as an example of “time optimization and structured and comprehensive triage, coordinated work between different specialties and with other devices in the territory and personalized assistance to urgent patients.”
The anesthesiology and rehabilitation service is the first to be activated to care for a multiple trauma patient who arrives through the emergency department. Previously, during the transfer of the patient, the Medical Emergency System (SEM) has transferred information about the care of the injured person, with which the team that will care for them in the Vall d’Hebron begins to define a care program.
A multidisciplinary group of seven professionals receives the patient at the hospital and treats, first, the imminently risky injuries to avoid death and minimize sequelae. “Globally, the most frequent causes of death in these patients are hemorrhagic shock and severe head trauma,” said Miguel Ángel González, professional in the anesthesiology and resuscitation service.
“Especially in the first hours, hemorrhagic shock with sources of uncontrolled bleeding is the main cause of death. This is why proximity and quick access to CT and an embolization room or an operating room are so important. With the new facilities it is possible to reduce distances and accelerate the process of emergent care,” he added.