Community Benefits Report<strong>Enloe</strong>’s Trauma ServicesDelivering fast, skilled emergency careStanding on the helicopter pad on top <strong>of</strong> <strong>Enloe</strong><strong>Medical</strong> <strong>Center</strong> gives a sense <strong>of</strong> the vast anddiverse region that the hospital’s Trauma Servicesteam serves.Because <strong>of</strong> its geographical reach as a Level II Trauma<strong>Center</strong>, <strong>Enloe</strong> sees a wide range <strong>of</strong> traumas, fromgang violence and vehicular accidents to farmingand water accidents.“<strong>Enloe</strong> is the highest-level trauma center in the area,”says Judy Cline, FlightCare RN and Trauma Coordinator,photographed with students, third photo down.A trauma center is a specialized facility in a hospital that’sdesigned to treat medical traumas, which are the mostcritically injured partients. The nearest Level I center isUniversity <strong>of</strong> California at Davis. “While many <strong>of</strong> the smallerhospitals in our region are designated as Level III or LevelIV trauma centers, they are very limited in the services theycan provide, though they do a fantastic job <strong>of</strong> stabilizingpatients until they can be airlifted out,” Cline says.<strong>Enloe</strong>’s Trauma <strong>Center</strong> is in the Emergency Department,which saw more than 38,000 patients in 2007.Cline says that on average, the <strong>Enloe</strong> Trauma <strong>Center</strong>sees 500 to 600 patients a year. Sixty-nine percent <strong>of</strong>these patients are male, and a majority <strong>of</strong> injuries area result <strong>of</strong> blunt force trauma, like a car crash, while11 percent are a result <strong>of</strong> knives and guns.“We’re seeing an increase in these injuries as moreknives and guns are being brought to parties indowntown Chico,” Cline comments.An important complement to the Trauma <strong>Center</strong>are <strong>Enloe</strong>’s emergency dispatchers who send firstresponders such as <strong>Enloe</strong> ambulances and theFlightCare helicopter. <strong>Enloe</strong>’s communicationscenter dispatches the helicopter using threedimensionalmodeling s<strong>of</strong>tware.“It’s an incredible communications center– very well-coordinated and simply topnotch,”Cline says. <strong>Enloe</strong> is one <strong>of</strong> the last hospitals withits own ambulances and helicopter; most hospitals nowcontract with other agencies to use this equipment.An ounce <strong>of</strong> preventionAn important part <strong>of</strong> its role in caring for the communityis preventing traumas in the first place. “Unfortunately,we still see many children on bicycles, skateboards andall-terrain vehicles without helmets,” Cline says. “Andmany children are still not in appropriate child-restraintseats in vehicles.“We know that seatbelts and helmets save lives, butcountless people still do not use them,” she continues.Of the trauma patients from newborn to 14 years old at<strong>Enloe</strong> in 2006, 38 percent were injured in motor vehiclecrashes, and 62 percent were hurt in crashes on bicycles,motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles or as pedestrians inrelated incidents.“It is heartbreaking to see people injured so traumatically,knowing that if a few extra precautions were taken, theinjuries would have been much less devastating,” Cline says.This is one reason <strong>Enloe</strong>’s Trauma Services team <strong>of</strong>fersThinkFirst for Kids, which teaches injury prevention in areaelementary schools, and Every 15 Minutes, which shows localhigh school students a dramatic, interactive role play <strong>of</strong> anauto crash trauma. Trauma Services’ Helmet Bank outfitsyoung victims <strong>of</strong> bicycle, scooter or skateboard crasheswith a new helmet right in the emergency room.Other community outreach activities include involvement withSafe Kids <strong>of</strong> Butte County, Butte/Glenn Child Death Reviewand injury prevention and alcohol poisoning education forCSUC students.Citrus Elementary School has used the ThinkFirst for Kidsprogram for the past two years to complement its healthcurriculum. “The <strong>Enloe</strong> staff is a positive, pr<strong>of</strong>essional team— and their lessons are appropriate for all ages,” saysCherie McGuire, school principal. “And the most importantpart is that the information they share is critical to keepingour youth safe.” zwww.enloe.org 3