Dec. 22, 2021
MINOCQUA – Marshfield Medical Center-Minocqua recently announced its Level III trauma designation with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services and highlighted its emergency department patient experience scores are amongst the best in the country.
Wisconsin's statewide trauma care system is a voluntary classification hospitals can achieve by maintaining specific trauma-related standards. Level III hospitals prove they can provide assessment, resuscitation, stabilization, and emergency surgery and arrange transfer to Level I or II facilities for definitive surgical and intensive care as necessary.
“The Level III trauma designation will allow us to provide state-of-the-art, best-practice trauma care here in the Northwoods," said Dr. Gavin Ambrosi, general surgeon, and trauma medical director for Marshfield Medical Center-Minocqua. “A strength of our program is our system's approach with great administrative support and the close communication with our higher level trauma center in Marshfield."
Specific efforts to obtain the designation included:
- Setting up injury prevention education and community outreach.
- Process improvement processes which utilize a trauma registry to track data, help with process improvement, and help ensure providers are providing best practice trauma care.
- All physicians are Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) certified.
- Create feedback system to providers and local EMS.
- Hosting a mock mass casualty drill to prepare for any future mass casualty events.
- Development of paramedic transport service with trained critical care paramedics.
- Holding monthly trauma meetings to review cases and quarterly trauma rounds to educate all staff involved.
Marshfield Medical Center-Minocqua also recently announced its patient experience performance scores at its emergency department are among the highest in the nation, according to Press Ganey, a national patient experience vendor. The emergency department has consistently scored high in patient surveys since opening in 2020 and has been ranked in the 99th percentile for the last six months among emergency departments regionally. Nationally, the Marshfield Medical Center-Minocqua emergency department has scored in the top decile among 2,519 comparable departments measured by Press Ganey.
“The gratitude and well-being of patients is the best reward anyone in health care can receive," said Dr. Susan Turney, chief executive officer of Marshfield Clinic Health System. “I would like to add my gratitude, and the gratitude of our entire System, for our Minocqua Emergency Department team. Your work is essential and excellent at the most fundamental level, caring for human life. It is also transformative because our entire System can learn from your example."
