Acute Care Surgery

Pictured: Trauma Education & Outreach Team vehicle

Faculty Listing:

Mark L. Gestring, M.D., F.A.C.S., Professor of Surgery and Chief, Division of Acute Care Surgery

Paul E. Bankey, M.D., Ph.D., F.A.C.S., Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics Medical Director, Nutrition Support Service

Julius D. Cheng, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.C.S., Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics; Professor of Clinical Nursing, School of Nursing

Yanjie Qi, M.D., F.A.C.S., Associate Professor of Surgery; General Surgery Residency Program Director

Michael Nabozny, M.D., Assistant Professor of Surgery

Michael Rotondo, M.D., F.A.C.S., Professor of Surgery; Associate Vice President for Administration; Chief Executive Officer; Vice Dean for Clinical Affairs

Ayodele T. Sangosanya, M.D., M.B.A., F.A.C.S., Associate Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics

Nicole A. Stassen, M.D., F.A.C.S., Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics and Medical Director of the Kessler Family Burn/Trauma ICU; Surgical Critical Care Fellowship Director

Michael Vella, M.D., M.B.A., F.A.C.S., Assistant Professor of Surgery; Trauma Medical Director

The COVID-19 pandemic challenged healthcare systems worldwide. That being said, the need for acute care surgery and trauma care services in our region did not decrease. The end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021 were particularly challenging as we worked to deal with the aftermath of historic increases in violence combined with an overall increase in traumatic injury that became the reality throughout our region during this period of time.

At our trauma center, we experienced a 25% increase in severely injured patients of all types and a concomitant 30% increase in patients requiring emergent trauma operations. This was accompanied by a stunning 90% increase in gunshot injuries compared to the year before. Our Division worked closely with departmental and hospital leadership to assure that the staff, equipment and facilities necessary to provide this important care were available to those who needed it without interruption during this stressful period.

Despite the challenges presented by COVID-19, we were able to celebrate many successes as well. Our unrelenting commitment to injury prevention, outreach and education continued throughout the pandemic. We were able to modify our Stop the Bleed® program, which is usually taught in person, to conform to all state and local guidelines and we continued to provide this education both live and virtually throughout the region.

We were also able to continue as the region’s only source of trauma education for professional providers. In addition to Stop the Bleed®, we were able to continue offering Prehospital Trauma Life Support (PHTLS®), Advanced Trauma Care for Nurses (ATCN®) and Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS®) for first responders, physicians and advanced practice providers. We were also able to develop and grow the Rural Trauma Team Development Course (RTTDC®), which is taught to rural providers at hospitals in our 17-county referral area. This program has been documented to improve survival of patients seriously injured in rural environments and was originally designed to help smaller, non-trauma hospitals initially manage and stabilize seriously injured patients in preparation for transfer to a trauma center. After a break during the height of the pandemic, this program is now fully operational and is on track to teach eight courses per year at different rural facilities across our region. This is an especially unique educational experience for participants as we bring the course to them and teach it at their facility. This allows as many providers as possible from a particular hospital to benefit from the training without the need to travel – and it also gives us the opportunity to strengthen regional relationships with these important rural referral centers.

Our trauma teams continue to provide high-quality clinical care, and remain committed to community outreach and engagement. Now that the pandemic restrictions are gradually being lifted, we are once again able to engage in community events that target violence prevention. Working with Project Exile, Camp Good Days and Special Times and a host of other community partners, we are again actively participating in multiple programs and events in the community designed to address the significant increase in gun violence that we have seen over the last year. These efforts, in conjunction with the ongoing work of our well-established, hospital-based violence intervention program, continue to emphasize our dedication to a peaceful and safe community.

As in past years, education of the next generation of surgeons continues to be a priority for our Division. Two of our Divisional faculty members were recipients of prestigious departmental teaching awards over the last two years and our surgical critical care fellowship continues to graduate two fellows each year. Our clinical rotations and teaching conferences were also recently redesigned to maximize the educational potential of these unique learning experiences for our surgical residents and surgical critical care fellows.

Mark L. Gestring, M.D., F.A.C.S. Professor of Surgery, Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics and Chief, Division of Acute Care Surgery