Cartersville — The trauma center at Piedmont Cartersville Medical Center has been verified as a Level 3 Trauma Center by the Verification Review Committee (VRC), an ad hoc committee of the Committee on Trauma (COT) of the American College of Surgeons (ACS). This achievement recognizes the trauma center's dedication to providing optimal care for injured patients.
Established by the American College of Surgeons in 1987, the COT's Consultation/Verification Program for Hospitals promotes the development of trauma centers in which participants provide not only the hospital resources necessary for trauma care, but also the entire spectrum of care to address the needs of all injured patients. This spectrum encompasses the prehospital phase through the rehabilitation process.
Verified trauma centers must meet the essential criteria that ensure trauma care capability and institutional performance, as outlined by the American College of Surgeons' Committee on Trauma in its current Resources for Optimal Care of the Injured Patient manual.
“This achievement is a testament to the great work our team has done over the past several years in launching a trauma program and rapidly bringing it to maturity,” said Chris Mosley, Piedmont Cartersville CEO. “As the only hospital in Bartow County, and in helping to care for our community, we made the decision to advance our level of trauma care and achieved state certification in 2018. In an effort to further develop our capabilities, we voluntarily subjected our program to the rigorous ACS survey process to ensure we were meeting the high standards set by ACS.”
“This certification is evidence that we are innovating, meeting those standards in becoming the first Level III trauma center in the state and helping to change lives,” Mosley continued.
The ACS Committee on Trauma's verification program does not designate trauma centers. Rather, the program provides confirmation that a trauma center has demonstrated its commitment to providing the highest quality trauma care for all injured patients. The actual establishment and the designation of trauma centers is the function of local, regional, or state health care systems agencies, such as the local emergency medical services (EMS) authority.
There are five separate categories of verification in the COT's program. Each category has specific criteria that must be met by a facility seeking that level of verification (see attachment to this press release). Each hospital has an on-site review by a team of experienced site reviewers, who use the current Resources for the Optimal Care of the Injured Patient manual as a guideline in conducting the survey.
“I am particularly grateful to our Trauma Medical Director, Dr. John Simmons from the Harbin Clinic, and our Trauma Services Director, John Pope, for their leadership in building our program,” said Mosley. “We received multiple compliments from the trauma surgeon surveyors about their engagement and commitment to excellence, and that dedication was apparent in their evaluation of our program. Trauma care involves multiple departments of the hospital including the ER, OR, ICU, Lab, and Imaging, just to name a few, and the dedicated leadership of our directors and staff members has been stellar.”
About Piedmont Cartersville
Piedmont Cartersville is a 119-bed acute care hospital, Chest Pain Center, Certified Primary Stroke Center, Level III Trauma Center, Certified Total Joint program and Gold Seal Inpatient Diabetes program facility accredited by the Joint Commission. The Breast Imaging Center at The Women’s Center provides mammography services that are gold seal accredited by the American College of Radiology. The Advanced Wound Healing Center provides specialized treatment for chronic or non-healing wounds. The Hope Center, a regional cancer treatment facility, is conveniently located on the hospital campus and provides over 4,000 treatments with over 300 new patients per year from a ten county region. For medical needs that do not require a visit to the emergency department, Cartersville Urgent Care offers a convenient location close to home with walk-in care for most minor injuries and illnesses along with preventative care and testing.
For more information about programs and services offered at Piedmont Cartersville or The Hope Center, call visit
piedmont.org.
About The American College of Surgeons
The American College of Surgeons is a scientific and educational association of surgeons that was founded in 1913 to raise the standards of surgical education and practice and to improve the care of the surgical patient. The College has over 72,000 members and it is the largest association of surgeons in the world. Longstanding achievements have placed the ACS in the forefront of American surgery and have made it an important advocate for all surgical patients.
Cartersville — The trauma center at Piedmont Cartersville Medical Center has been verified as a Level 3 Trauma Center by the Verification Review Committee (VRC), an ad hoc committee of the Committee on Trauma (COT) of the American College of Surgeons (ACS). This achievement recognizes the trauma center's dedication to providing optimal care for injured patients.