Georgia Trauma Communications Center

The Trauma Communications Center coordinates Trauma System activities by maintaining and providing information on Trauma Center status and, when appropriate, on pre-hospital capabilities. This information is used to ensure that patients meeting Trauma System Entry Criteria have access to definitive trauma care at an appropriate level of state-designated Trauma Center. The Trauma Communications Center is continually staffed by personnel with specific and in-depth knowledge of Trauma System design, function, and protocols.

The Trauma Communications Center operates through statewide guidelines and region-specific protocols established by the Trauma Commission and the State OEMS&T.  The Trauma Communications Center ONLY provides information and recommendations about patient destination as per pre-established regional protocols for System function. The Trauma Communications Center serves as an information resource for EMS providers, Trauma Centers and non-designated participating hospitals.  The general functions of the Trauma Communications Center are to:
 

  • Provide information on System entry criteria based on statewide guidelines as requested by System stakeholders and providers;
     
  • Assign a unique System I.D. number for each patient meeting Trauma System Entry Criteria;
     
  • Collect brief pre-hospital database information;
     
  • Maintain available resource information and the functional status of all System Trauma Centers and non-designated participating hospitals at all times and, when appropriate, knowledge of System’s pre-hospital capabilities;
     
  • Provide information regarding secondary triage status of the patient based on statewide guidelines and approved regional protocols;
     
  • Establish dependable communication link between field EMS provider and receiving facility;
     
  • Record and enter pre-hospital data for the Trauma System Communications Database;
     
  • Arrange inter-facility transfers of Trauma System patients between Trauma Centers and non-designated participating hospitals; and,
     
  • Coordinate communication for optimal resource utilization using pre-established statewide guidelines and regional protocols for medical surge during mass casualty incidents or public health emergencies in collaboration with the Department of Community Health Division of Preparedness and Response and the Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA).


The data collection capabilities attributed to the Trauma Communications Center in the list above and the description of the Resource Availability Display below are based upon an information system not yet developed or purchased for Trauma Communications Center use.  A proposed description of communications capabilities is included in this Framework in order to explain the Trauma Communications Center’s role statewide and in regional trauma systems, but is subject to change based upon selection of an information system to serve the Trauma Communications Center.

Link to Georgia Trauma System Entry Criteria