Netcare Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital achieves level 1 trauma-centre accreditation

SOUTH AFRICA – Netcare Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital has achieved level 1 trauma-centre accreditation from the Trauma Society of South Africa (TSSA), a first for private hospitals in the Cape.

This means that the hospital has the best practice and the safest standards in trauma medicine.

Level 1 TSSA trauma centre accreditation certifies that the trauma care system has the necessary levels of expertise and equipment to treat the most severely injured polytrauma cases.

“The true value of investing in quality systems is measured in the lives this saves, and this is clearly demonstrated in a healthcare facility’s capacity for treating trauma patients with severe injuries, and the outcomes it achieves for patients,” said Louis van der Hoven, Netcare’s regional general manager for the Western Cape.

Andrew Nicol, trauma director at Netcare Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital, commented that “It has been shown that getting a severely injured patient to a facility that is appropriately equipped as quickly as possible improves survival rates and outcomes.

“When a critically injured patient is managed with a multidisciplinary team approach, encompassing emergency medical services, medical specialities and trained trauma surgeons and nurses, according to the established trauma protocols of a level 1 accredited centre, their chances of survival are greater,”he added.

Both the TSSA auditors, and professors Tim Hardcastle and Jacques Goosen, confirmed that they were suitably impressed with the quality of the submission and care offered in the facility for the most severely injured, and they congratulated the team at Netcare Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital for their role in improving trauma care in the Western Cape and South Africa.

In a Netcare study using AI to explore the impact of a level 1 trauma centre on the probability of survival for trauma injuries in the South African context, it was established that the probability of survival in a Level 1 centre was improved.

“Now that we are officially accredited, emergency medical services can have the utmost confidence in bringing any critically injured patient to the trauma unit at Netcare Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital, with trauma surgeons attending to patients and ongoing measurement of our trauma care against best-practice protocols to ensure the quality of care remains consistent,” said Amanda Klette, Netcare Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital’s trauma programme manager.

She added that saving lives and improving the expected outcomes when accidents and trauma injuries happen is at the heart of all their efforts, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

“Thanks to the truly awesome team, as the first private level 1 trauma centre in the Cape region, Netcare Christiaan Barnard Hospital is here to provide private trauma care to the best and safest standards when it is needed most,” she said.

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