A decade of difference
Vanderbilt’s Trauma Center opened with public fanfare on Aug. 13, 1998, and a decade later
remains the centerpiece of Middle Tennessee’s trauma system. The bricks and mortar physical space of the 31-bed unit may be
largely unchanged since ‘98, but the people who work there have done anything but let time stand still.
Since its opeing, the Trauma Center’s admissions have nearly doubled from just over 2,000 per year to almost 4,000. “This increase in the volume of patients is due to the growth in our referral
community, and because we’ve lowered our length of stay,” said John A. Morris Jr., M.D., director of Vanderbilt’s Division of Trauma and Surgical Critical Care. “Due to efficiencies we’ve increased patients by a factor of two, while the increase in hospital days
has increased only by a factor of 1.7.”
More than 18,000 motor vehicle accident victims, more than 3,600 gunshot
victims, 1,500 stabbing victims, 4,000 fall victims, and a significant volume
of other injuries from categories such as farm implements, industrial
accidents, pedestrians hit by cars and injuries caused by animals have passed
through the unit’s doors.
If a patient can survive his or her injuries long enough to make it through the
doors of the Trauma Center they have a 92 percent chance of survival.
Morris is a pioneer in the field of trauma medicine, which he says, “wasn’t even a specialty at the time I started.” He was recruited to Vanderbilt in 1984 by former associate vice chancellor for
Health Affairs Joseph C. Ross, M.D., and has been VUMC’s Trauma director since. At the time of his arrival Vanderbilt wasn’t readily able to systematically care for large numbers of critically injured
trauma victims.
In addition to his responsibilities as administrator, clinician and researcher,
Morris is a strategist whose approach to the care and delivery of trauma
medicine has helped lead to the integrated trauma system in place at VUMC
today. This system includes LifeFlight with its components of rotor-wing, fixed
wing and ground transportation, Flight Communications, The Trauma Center and
Vanderbilt’s Regional Burn Center.
“The Trauma Center has its origins in the fundamental concept that if you
aggregate patients into the hands of a small number of professionals who only
deal with that disease process they will learn over time how to deal with it
better. Quite honestly, there are things about trauma patients that make them
very different from other patients in the hospital,” Morris said. “You can call those differences problems, you can call them challenges, you can
call them whatever you want to call them. But trauma patients and their
families require unique care.”
Out of this requirement for unique care came the administrative momentum to
physically aggregate Vanderbilt’s growing volume of trauma patients into one location, which led to the birth of
the 10 North Trauma Center.
“By having a facility to put these patients where there is knowledge, expertise
and protocols in place to handle their problems, it’s no longer a problem,” he said. “Trauma becomes a disease like any other.”
