Many of us live here because of the opportunities for outdoor activities. Skiing and snowboarding in the winter; hiking, boating and hunting in the spring, summer and fall, it’s a perfect life, isn’t it? Yes. But it’s often an accident waiting to happen.

For-tunately for us, we have a great hospital right here, and access to a bigger one about an hour south of here. Our closest trauma center is in Spokane, a 90-minute drive at the speed limit or roughly 15 minutes by helicopter.

The quicker you’re evaluated and either treated or transported is critical to your recovery and, often your life. So, although we love the wilderness, the lake and the mountain we have to admit we do live in a rural community and often the freakiest of accidents happen when we’re the furthest away from town.

“Few people realize that while only 25 percent of our population lives in rural regions, more than 60 percent of the trauma deaths in America occur in these remote geographic segments of the country,” wrote Michael F. Rotondo, M.D., FACS, chair of the Committee on Trauma, American College of Surgeons in the foreword of a workbook for the rural trauma team development course.

This course was recently completed by a contingent of health care professionals from Bonner General Hospital, Boundary Community Hospital, Benewah Community Hospital, Shoshone Medical Center and Kootenai Health. The one-day in-depth workshop gave these emergency department providers the tools for giving trauma patients the most expedient and comprehensive care.

“It taught our little hospital how to organize a response to a multisystem trauma patient by utilizing ancillary staff, such as radiology and laboratory departments early in the scenario and to be organized in the areas of systemic diagnosis and delineation of responsibilities,” said Mike Taylor, Bonner General Hospital’s Emergency Department manager.

Taylor said that the course, attended by two physicians and six registered nurses from BGH, charts the course for making better patient decisions.

These improved decisions are augmented by the team building segment of the curriculum that allows the staff to interface with counterparts in other hospitals.

“Everyone now has a spot to be or a task to complete. They know exactly what they’re supposed to do. This is particularly beneficial when treating a lot of patients at one time,” Taylor said.

According to the RTTDC workbook, the objective of the course was to organize a rural trauma team, to prepare the facility for injured persons, to identify local resources and limitations, assess and resuscitate a trauma patient, initiate the transfer process as quickly as possible and to communicate effectively between the rural trauma facility and the regional trauma system.

“We’re capable of handling any life threatening issues the same as any other Emergency Department,” Taylor said. “However, due to being a small rural Critical Access Hospital, we don’t have all of the specialized care and physician resources that a larger facility has to manage the patient once the immediate life threat has been mitigated. This course focused on rapid identification of traumatic injury that exceeds our resources and on how to transport the patient quickly and safely.”

Kathy Hubbard is a trustee on Bonner General Hospital Foundation Board. She can be reached at 264-4029 or [email protected].