Waikato Hospital achieves Level 1 Trauma Verification – a first for New Zealand
Waikato Hospital has been formally recognised as a Level 1 trauma centre, the first in New Zealand. The Level 1 Trauma Verification was approved by the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) Trauma Verification Committee last week.
Through a rigorous assessment and service improvement program, Waikato Hospital has demonstrated a full range of capabilities to provide optimal care for injured patients, from initial reception and resuscitation through to discharge and rehabilitation.
Waikato Hospital is one of the busiest trauma centres in New Zealand and clinical director Dr Grant Christey said the team is delighted to achieve Level 1 Trauma verification, the recognised gold standard for the delivery of best practice trauma care to injured patients in Australia and New Zealand. It is roughly equivalent to Level 1 verification in USA and Canada.
In another first for Australasia, the DHBs within the Midland Trauma System have all voluntarily undergone the first full regional verification review by the RACS team to raise the bar for trauma care across the region. Included in the system-wide review were Tauranga, Rotorua, Gisborne, Taranaki and Whakatane and Waikato Hospitals.
“I want to acknowledge the enormous team efforts from all services in the Midland DHBs that have occurred since our first verification in 2007 to reach this level, both in the clinical work toward the highest levels of service, and to extend our capability and strengthen our processes and infrastructure,” said Dr Christey.
“ A significant amount of work has been done behind the scenes to standardise clinical care, and build infrastructure including data systems, education and training resources, research capability and workforce development.
“The great benefit of the verification process is that we also learn about both our weaknesses and opportunities to reach higher levels, and what we need to focus on moving forward. In many ways this is the start of a new phase for Waikato Hospital and the Midland region.”
The Trauma Verification program is a leading mechanism for quality improvement and endorsement of Australian and New Zealand trauma care.
Trauma verification is a multi-disciplinary inter-collegiate process that assists hospitals to analyse their systems of care. It covers all phases of acute care from pre-hospital through to discharge and identifies the strengths and weaknesses of the hospital’s trauma systems. This allows hospitals to benchmark their services against international best-practice standards, helps save lives, reduce waiting times and lower costs.
