Our Trauma Register Courses were designed and developed by a distinguished group of trauma registrars, with input from other experts in the field of trauma registry such as trauma surgeons, trauma coordinator and epidemiologist.

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Trauma Register Course™

The TRAUMA REGISTER COURSE – BASIC (TRC-B) of the American Trauma Society has been offered since 1987 as a primer for the professional new to the area of trauma data collection. Developed as an entry-level course, the TRC-B has been continually updated and continues to provide a basic font of knowledge and a simple and standard approach to trauma data collection. Participants are typically registrars, state, local, and hospital administrators, coordinators, directors and others. All who attend come from different backgrounds, with different experiences. The TRC-B helps to fill in the gaps and provide a more uniform understanding of the specialty and approach to the task.

The TRAUMA REGISTER COURSE – ADVANCED (TRCA) was written in 1999 to provide a deeper look into the issues that affect a trauma register. The TRC-Advanced helps to fill in the gaps and provide a more uniform understanding of the specialty and approach to the task of maintaining a trauma register for the seasoned registrar.

Now in 2009, ATS has combined these courses in an effort to streamline education in a cost efficient manner. The TRC is written, produced, updated and presented through the volunteer efforts of members of the Trauma Registrars' Council of the American Trauma Society. These courses are brought to you by your colleagues, who like you are immersed in these tasks every day. The Trauma Registrars' Council has grown into the largest national active group for the trauma registrar professional. This council is active in developing and communicating standards and improvements in trauma data collection and reporting. The also provide the countless hours and efforts to continually updated the ATS trauma registrar materials.

The Trauma Register Course is recognized by the American College of Surgeons in their latest published manual Resources for Optimal Care of the Injured Patient: 2006, as an avenue for comprehensive trauma registry training. It is our hope that you will find a wealth of knowledge in this course that will enable you to assist your institution in its trauma registry program, making it the best that it can be. Additionally, we sincerely hope that this course, like other ATS efforts, will provide yet another means to achieve our goal of better education for trauma care and prevention.

Michelle D. Pomphrey, MLT, RN, CSTR
Trauma Register Course Coordinator

Course Learning Objectives

Upon completion of the Trauma Register Course the participant will be better able to:

1. Identify the fundamental elements of a trauma registry
2. Identify the fundamental elements of the National Trauma Data Standard dataset patient inclusion criteria
3. Achieve familiarity with the National Trauma Data Standards, their definitions, field values, and required associated elements
4. Achieve familiarity with anatomical and medical terms frequently used in trauma, and understand their relevance to injury data collection
5. Identify the basic principles for various scaling and scoring tools such as the ICD-9-CM, Trauma Score, Revised Trauma Score, Abbreviated Injury Scale, Injury Severity Score, TRISS, etc.
6. Understand the assignment of injury severity values using the tools listed above, and their importance
7. Identify the process of reviewing and abstracting medical records of seriously injured trauma victims
8. State the assignment of e-codes and their significance
9. Utilize ICD-9-CM coding of complex multiple trauma patients with solid organ injuries in practice
10. Identify various methods of data presentation
11. Identify the basic principles of Inter-Rater Reliability audits
12. Identify areas related to DRGs to potentially increase financial reimbursement
13. Describe the differences between coding for reimbursement versus injury severity
14. Identify multidisciplinary members of a trauma quality and process improvement committee and discuss methodology for process and quality improvement
15. Achieve familiarity with computer hardware and software commonly used in trauma registers
16. Understand the significance of confidentiality concerning patient data and be able to develop safeguards to maintain these standards in the safe use of Trauma Register data and reports
17. Verbalize the importance of complete and comprehensive documentation as it relates to injury severity and reimbursement
18. Practice chart abstracting by reviewing actual medical records

Course Content
Course Content Lectures

• Trauma Register Basics
• Anatomy and Terminology
• General Coding Principles
• E-Coding Principles
• Scoring Principles
• ICD-9-CM Coding Guidelines
• Chart Abstraction and Data Procurement
• Registry Reports
• Performance Improvement / Patient Safety
• Computer & Electronic Technology
• Confidentiality and Security
• Data Validation
• DRG, Financial Implications, and the Trauma Registrar
• National Trauma Data Bank
• Marketing Strategies and the Trauma Registry
• American College of Surgeons: National Trauma Data Standards

Labs

• Medical Terminology
• Basic Scoring
• Basic Coding
• Registry Reporting
• 3 actual case studies

The next TRC courses will be held on April 28th & April 29th

Location:
Key Bridge Marriott
1401 Lee Highway, Arlington, Virginia
Reservations: 703-524-6400

*The trauma register basic and advanced courses have been revised and combined to facilitate comprehensive learning for the trauma registrar.

Course times:
April 28th (7:45 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.)
April 29th (7:45 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.)

Cost: ATS member: $525.00
ATS Non-Member: $690.00

**The American Trauma Society will charge a $50.00 administrative processing fee on all requested refunds.

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