Peregrine Health Services and Trauma System News are pleased to announce the winners of the 2024 Peregrine Award for Trauma Innovation — Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas and the Montana State Trauma Care Committee.

“I am very pleased to congratulate the winners of the 2024 Peregrine Award for Trauma Innovation,” said Mark Feinberg, managing partner of Peregrine Health Services and CEO of National Quality Systems (NQS). “We created the Peregrine Award to recognize and disseminate fresh ideas that result in better care for injured patients, so we are honored to shine a light on these two organizations for their innovative work in improving trauma care.”

Representatives from the winning organizations will share their innovations during our special “Profiles in Trauma Innovation” online event in May 2024. To register, click below:

Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas: Automated Detection of Trauma Data Errors

Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital is an ACS-verified Level I trauma center in Dallas, Texas. The Texas Health Presbyterian team is the 2024 Peregrine Award Winner in the Level I and II Trauma Centers Category.

The trauma program’s winning innovation was submitted by trauma research coordinator Jacob Roden-Foreman. “Our center uses all recommended data quality tools, and our inter-rater reliability routinely exceeds 95%,” he explained. “Despite this, a deep-dive before a verification visit revealed notable and widespread issues.”

In response to this challenge, Roden-Foreman developed a fully customizable software program to automatically detect potential data quality issues in registry data. In a head-to-head test, the program found 47% more issues than the validation systems built into the hospital’s commercial registry platform.

According to Roden-Foreman, a post-implementation survey revealed strong staff satisfaction with the software program. “All respondents found the program helpful overall, and all respondents reported higher confidence in registry data accuracy.”

Montana State Trauma Care Committee: Choreographed Response to Severely Bleeding Patients

The Montana State Trauma Care Committee is the 2024 Peregrine Award Winner in the Level III, IV and V Trauma Centers Category. The committee’s winning innovation was submitted by Alyssa Johnson, MSN, RN, CEN, TCRN, trauma system manager for the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services.

Johnson worked with trauma leaders throughout the state to create a system-based response for severely bleeding patients in rural areas — the Montana Interfacility Blood Network (MT-IBN). The network uses a unique “hand-off” process that allows ground ambulance crews to obtain needed blood products, and administer them to patients, en route to a higher level of care.

“The MT-IBN directly tackles the challenges of providing timely access to blood products in Montana’s vast and sparsely populated rural regions, where distances between healthcare facilities are immense and transportation options can be limited by adverse weather conditions,” Johnson explained.

“By enabling the initiation of blood product transfusion during prehospital transport, the MT-IBN aims to improve patient outcomes and survival rates in cases of severe hemorrhage or traumatic injury,” she noted. “The network fosters collaboration and resource sharing among healthcare facilities across Montana, optimizing the utilization of available blood products for the benefit of patients in need.”

Nominations received from five continents

More than 50 trauma centers from North America, South America, Europe, Africa and Asia submitted nominations for the 2024 Peregrine Award for Trauma Innovation.

All entries were assessed by an independent panel of five judges:

• Chris Cribari, MD, FACS — Medical Director Acute Care Surgery, UCHealth
• Peter Fischer, MD, MS, NRP, FACS — Trauma Medical Director, Regional One Health
• Elizabeth Freeman, BSN, MHA, RN, TCRN — Trauma Program Director, Atrium Health
• Tim Murphy, MSN, RN, ACNP-BC, CEN, TCRN, FAEN — Trauma PI Coordinator, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital
• Melissa Sorensen, BS, MSN, RN, CEN, CSTR, CPHQ — Corporate Trauma Registry Manager, Mountain Division, CommonSpirit Health

Judging took place in two rounds, an initial round and a semifinalist round. The judges evaluated final nominations based on their creativity, quality, efficiency, cost-effectiveness and scalability.

“The aim of the Peregrine Award is to spotlight the kind of innovations that lead to real improvements in trauma care and program management,” Feinberg said. “That is why we are pleased to recognize and honor this year’s winners for their creativity and dedication to improving systems of trauma care.”

Learn from the winners

Trauma leaders from Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas and the Montana State Trauma Care Committee will be honored in May 2024 during a special online learning event:

Profiles in Trauma Innovation: Improving Trauma Data Quality and Trauma System Collaboration

During this one-hour webinar, Roden-Foreman and Johnson will explain the challenges their teams faced and describe in detail their innovative solutions.