Trauma Center

The Shands at University of Florida Level I Trauma Center provides care for patients with traumatic critical injuries. The care provided is rendered by a multidisciplinary team that includes pre-hospital personnel, UF trauma surgeons, consult physicians, nurses and ancillary staff. For trauma patients, getting proper care within the first hour of injury greatly increases the chance of survival, and mortality is reduced by 15 to 20 percent when a very seriously injured patient is treated at a trauma center versus a non-trauma center. With the addition of a Level I Trauma Center, Shands UF is able to provide trauma care not only for the Gainesville, Florida area, but for areas as far as Tallahassee, Jacksonville, Orlando and South Georgia.

Trauma Team Objectives:

  • -Provide initial resuscitative care required for critically injured patients

  • -Provide easy accessibility to radiology, blood banks, and laboratory services and operating rooms

  • -Provide necessary intensive care - both diagnostic and therapeutic  for all trauma patients admitted to Shands at UF

  • -Provide outreach activities on trauma prevention, including public education and continuing education for staff, physicians, nurses, allied health personnel and community physicians

  • -Provide all necessary team coordination in cases of complex, multi-system trauma

  • -Provide clinical experience and teaching for residents, nurses, physician extenders, emergency medical technicians and other allied health care professionals

  • -Perform trauma research designed to produce new knowledge applicable to the care of injured patients

Clinical Specialties
The trauma team provides complete medical attention to its patients by providing clinical monitoring, multidisciplinary conferences and committees that ensure top quality care. Clinical specialties include:

  • Surgical critical care

  • Orthopedic trauma

  • Neurological trauma

  • Oral-maxillofacial trauma

  • Plastic Surgery

  • Hand Surgery

In addition, UF trauma surgeons are specifically trained in performing emergency/acute care surgeries, such as appendectomy, and bowel perforation and obstruction.

ShandsCair

Saving time in an emergency situation is often the difference between life and death. For some of the 18,000 patients referred to Shands at UF each year, intensive care given at outside hospitals and en route by the ShandsCair flight team makes the difference. For the ShandsCair Flight Program, the combination of intensive care and rapid transportation has helped link referring physicians to tertiary care being rendered in the Emergency Room and Intensive Care Units at Shands at UF.

Research

UF faculty are conducting research in a number of areas to try to improve trauma care. Research focuses include:

  • Inflammation and the host response to injury

  • Sepsis and nosocomial pneumonia/infections

  • Resuscitation strategies

  • Wound healing and repair

  • Advanced neuro-trauma management

  • Homeostasis and coagulation

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