State-Level Certification Validates Exceptional Emergency Care
Patients enter the Gritman Emergency Department knowing they can receive an exceptional level of care.
Nicole Wheaton
Such high standards have also been validated by the state of Idaho Time Sensitive Emergency (TSE) System, which has granted Gritman Level IV Trauma Certification for the care provided by our Emergency Department.
“Patients should be confident in coming to our hospital for any level of care, especially trauma care, because we give consistent teaching and training to all of our staff,” Emergency Department Director Nicole Wheaton said. “Everyone’s required to have the same education and we routinely are testing their competency and doing trauma review and making sure we provide the best care possible.”
A standard set of protocols and data research will ensure the hospital maintains that high bar. Patients seen in the Emergency Department for a traumatic event like a heart attack, stroke or car accident go through a set of standardized procedures. The Level IV Trauma designation further spells out those protocols, helping determine when a patient is treated at Gritman throughout their entire stay, or whether they are stabilized and transferred to a larger hospital with a higher trauma designation or more specialized services.
Wheaton and Registered Nurse Ben Stellmon, who served as the Trauma Program Manager during the certification process, say the standard provides outside validation that emergency room physicians and staff are providing the highest quality of trauma care that they can.
Dr. Bryan Anderson
Emergency Department Medical Director and Physician Dr. Nicholas Garrett agrees.
“As a member of this community, one of the things that is near and dear to my heart is making sure we have good quality emergency services both for myself and my children, but also for my extended family that live in the community,” Dr. Garrett said. “Part of that is the trauma program here at Gritman Medical Center.”
Gritman is already providing that level of care, and the three-year designation provides consistent policies. That continuum starts with EMS providers throughout the region and air ambulance services like Life Flight that collectively serve more than 100,000 people in the region. Everything these providers do allows for a seamless transition for patients beginning in the moment a call comes into 911.
For Gritman General Surgeon Dr. Bryan Anderson, the designation is an important element in ensuring a patient is helped with the highest level of treatment available. Dr. Anderson for many years performed procedures at Idaho’s largest Level II Trauma center, St. Alphonsus in Boise, where he said the importance of emergency care from Level III and Level IV centers was instrumental in the quick recovery of patients transferred to a larger facility.
“And I think that’s what we can offer here at Gritman is that increased level of care in a Level IV center that will make it so patients do better and recover to the best of their ability,” he said.
Watch to Learn More About the Level IV Trauma Care Designation
