In yesterday’s session, the City Council unanimously approved the resolution proposed by Alvaro Ancisi, group leader of Lista per Ravenna, having as its object: “Guidance document on the feasibility of establishing a trauma team at the emergency room of the civil hospital of Ravenna“.
The group leader of the PD Marco Montanari contributed to the final draft, on the basis of the wishes formulated by the preliminary council commission (n. 2 “Health”), thanks also to the availability expressed on the occasion by a qualified managerial representation of the AUSL Romagna, department of Ravenna. The proposal was signed by the Forza Italia and Lega per Salvini groups and during its approval it was signed by the PD, Lista De Pascale, PRI and Cinque Stelle groups for the majority, Fratelli d’Italia and Viva Ravenna for the minority, the councilors of Gruppo Misto and La Pigna were absent.
In Emilia-Romagna, patients affected by major incidental traumas, also called “polytraumas”, are hospitalized at a regional Trauma Center, for Ravenna generally the one in Cesena.
Minor traumas, also called “simple”each hospital belonging to the Region’s Trauma Network is responsible, including the Santa Maria delle Croci in Ravenna, where a multidisciplinary team is active able to deal with them on the basis of existing operating instructions. However, it may happen that patients who were initially diagnosed with a simple trauma reveal, upon further examination at the hospital emergency room, a polytrauma, i.e. associated injuries affecting two or more body areas, with current or potential impairment of vital functions. In these cases, the primary objectives are to quickly resuscitate and stabilize the patient, set priorities, determine the nature and extent of injuries, and prepare the patient for transport to the regional Trauma Center, who will provide him with definitive care. The polytrauma doctor carries out requests for tests, an overall evaluation of the patient, communication with colleagues, management of family members and contacts with the regional Trauma Center. These tasks involve seeking contact with a variety of specialists and explaining the clinical case and the patient’s urgent needs to each one.
The guidelines of the main international health associations in the sector provide that the management of polytraumas, for the purposes of correct and quicker treatment of the patient, is taken care of by a Trauma Team, a multidisciplinary group made up of professional figures of the following specialties, all present in the civil hospital of Ravenna: emergency medicine, intensive care, surgery, pediatrics and obstetrics (if applicable), orthopedics, nursing, and any other medical support professions (ENT, vascular surgery, urology, ophthalmology, neurology) and non-medical (OS, Coordination stretcher bearers).
According to these lines, the Trauma Team is equipped with organizational lines that predefine, supported by the corresponding nursing figures, the following roles: Team Leader, Support Team Leader, Airway Doctor, Procedure Doctor, Technical Evaluation Doctor. Following a single call, the presence of all members of the team in the emergency room takes place during the reception phase and then during the resuscitation phase of the patient, each called upon to carry out the series of key tasks for which they are responsible. Therebythe Trauma Team facilitates the handover to each of the specialists, optimizing the synergistic dialogue with the relevant Trauma Center, to which the polytrauma patient must be transferred for definitive care.
THE RESOLUTION: The City Council decided, unanimously, to address the general director of the Romagna AUSL, through the Mayor of Ravenna, also in his capacity as president of the territorial socio-health conference of the AUSL itself, the request to verify the opportunity to formalize, through specific “organizational instructions”, the procedures through which the Trauma Team, active at the Civil Hospital of Ravenna, takes charge, making use of internal human and technological resources, of the primary management of patients affected by minor trauma, which, upon closer examination at the emergency room, turns out to be a major trauma.
