WASHINGTON, DC – Congress on Thursday evening passed a bipartisan initiative authored by U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) that will expand the federal definition of trauma to include burn injuries, a long-overdue modification urged by trauma care professionals.

Current law defines trauma in a way that excludes burn injuries, a definition that is outdated and prevents burn centers from being able to apply for funding made available under trauma and emergency care programs.  In response, Reed wrote the Improving Trauma Care Act of 2014 to modify and update the federal definition of trauma to include burns, a change that more appropriately reflects the relationship between burns and other traumatic injuries. 

“Reasonable people would agree that a burn should be considered trauma, but the current system established by Congress to support emergency medical care is rife with inconsistencies regarding what constitutes trauma, resulting in confusion and gaps in coverage.  Rhode Island is unfortunately no stranger to tragedies involving serious burn injuries, but this bill will allow for tangible improvements in integrating care for burns with other trauma care, ensuring that burn centers are eligible for federal trauma care programs and patients have access to the necessary care in their hour of need,“ said Reed, who also wrote the Trauma Care Systems Planning and Development Act of 2007, which was signed into law by President George W. Bush (Public Law 110-23).

Trauma is a broad definition used to describe severe injuries caused by an external force due to accidents or violence and is the leading cause of death in the United States for individuals aged 44 and younger.  According to the National Trauma Institute, trauma accounts for 41 million emergency room visits and 2.3 million hospital admissions across the country each year.  The nation’s trauma and emergency medical systems are designed to respond quickly and efficiently to get seriously injured individuals to the appropriate trauma center hospital within the “golden hour,” the time period when medical intervention is most effective in saving lives and preserving function.  Achieving this standard of access requires maintenance and careful coordination between organized systems of trauma care.

A number of leading trauma care professional organizations strongly supported Reed’s bill, including the American Burn Association, the American College of Surgeons, the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, the American Trauma Society, the American College of Emergency Physicians, the Trauma Center Association of America, and America’s Essential Hospitals.

“We need to strengthen the burn care infrastructure in this country and ensure that burn and trauma care are closely integrated,” the seven organizations wrote in a March 2014 letter.  “As a practical matter, such integration and cooperation is already taking place, but modernizing and providing consistency to the statutory definitions of trauma to include burn injuries would remove an artificial obstacle to such collaboration and foster a more efficient and responsive emergency medical care system.”

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the measure, which will now go to the President’s desk to be signed into law.

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