National body pushes for improved trauma care across the UK

Trauma or physical injury is the number one cause of death of those aged under 40 in the UK, with head injuries causing the most fatalities. Recent accidents such as Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond’s vehicle crash which left him with brain injuries after a 300 mph crash have highlighted the importance of effective trauma care and timely response.

[ClickPress, Tue Mar 20 2007] The UK’s Trauma Audit and Research Network (TARN) gathers and analyses data for hospitals to monitor their performance against past results and the performance of other hospitals, to help improve standards of care and to reduce the number of fatalities. TARN has a new online database, provided by IT experts Tribal Group, which brings together different aspects of care that trauma patients receive and informs clinicians so that they may review the overall care and make improvements. Care facilities vary across the NHS and the new online database will also allow the general public to go onto the website to see up-to-date information on where the best care is located as part of the government’s drive for public and patient choice and as they can already in the case of other care such as cardiac surgery. The system started its rollout in 2005 and went live fully in 2006, now around 40% of all trauma receiving hospitals participate in TARN (80 out of 202 hospitals).

TARN chose to replace its paper-based system with a bespoke national online audit solution from Tribal in order to improve the quality of its data, increase the amount of data collected and to obtain more detailed information. Doctors and administrative staff collect the data from strategically important points such as emergency departments, theatre and intensive care and neurosurgical units. Trauma care is complicated as patients can have a potential combination of up to 2000 different injuries and many variations on their course of treatment.

The system already holds 220,000 anonymous patient records providing valuable statistics. Maralyn Woodford, director of TARN, explains, “By disclosing information we hope that standards will constantly improve. The efficacy of this is shown through precedents such as the Kennedy report into cardiac surgery of children in Bristol. In the light of the report, they were under enormous pressure to turn their performance around.”

She adds, “We now have immediate access to more detailed information and our analysis can be translated into real service delivery improvements for trauma patients.”
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Notes to editors:
Trauma can result from incidents such as falling off ladders, breaking a leg in a road traffic incident or a motorcycle incident where the driver has a head injury.

The new online audit solution based on TARN’s functional specification is accessible via a standard web browser, which makes data collection more efficient, saves on software licences, database administration and data capture equipment as well as minimising roll-out costs and time. The system uses a decision-tree to guide data collectors through separate sets of questions for each type of injury.

The audit solution:
• Flags up reminders to add data when patients are transferred between hospitals
• Allows instant on-screen correspondence and dialogue
• Includes a content management tool for website updates
• Allows TARN to generate and publish reports and pop-up reminders on its website
• Holds a textbook reference library of anatomical terminology for non-clinical users
• Gives TARN the ability to hold online forums

About TARN: visit www.tarn.ac.uk

About Tribal: visit www.tribalgroup.co.uk
1. Tribal is one of the most successful and fastest growing companies supporting the public sector in the UK today. We are a leading provider of professional support services, offering a range of consultancy and delivered services. Our turnover is over £250 million and we employ over 2,300 people from a regional network of offices. Our services are grouped into the following areas: consulting, technology, resourcing, education, property, communications and delivery.

2. Our services are provided to over 2,500 public sector organisations, predominantly within education; health and social care; local government, housing and regeneration; and central government. We work with 80 per cent of secondary schools; 75 per cent of local authorities; 95 per cent of further education colleges; 90 per cent of strategic health authorities; and 75 per cent of NHS trusts.

3. We remain at the forefront of innovation in terms of public service delivery. We are operating a regional network of independent sector treatment centres in England on behalf of the NHS, putting us alongside major international healthcare providers.

For further information, please contact the Tribal Group communications team on 01285 886020 or by email: media@tribalgroup.co.uk

For further information, interview requests or interviews, please contact:
Catherine Dhanjal, TheAnswer Ltd Tel: 01883 650434 or 0794 166 9925
Email: catherine.dhanjal@theansweruk.com

Date: 20 March 2007 Ref: TA-383

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