Trauma Team

Level III Trauma Center for Life Threatening Injuries

Trauma is recognized as one of the greatest threats to public health and safety in the United States. (American College of Surgeons, 2006). The Trauma program at Baxter Health is designed to promote community injury prevention and provide state-of-the-art, evidence based trauma care. Trauma is any life-threatening occurrence that causes injuries, whether accidental or intentional. Traumatic injuries often require complex, multi-disciplinary treatment that may require surgery and Baxter Health is capable of providing those services to help give the trauma victim the best possible chance for survival and recovery.

Traumatic injuries involve potentially life-threatening events, such as:

• Brain injuries
• Spine injuries
• Burn injuries
• Crush injuries
• Amputation
• Broken jaw
• Traumatic bone injuries
• Severe electrical shocks

As a Level III designated trauma center, Baxter Health has the resources for emergency resuscitation, surgery and our new eICU (electronic Intensive Care Unit). As a rural hospital, Baxter Health has transfer agreements in place with higher level trauma centers (Level 1 and Level II) should the severity of injury necessitate transfer. As a Level III designated trauma center, Baxter Health is able to offer more services than any other Level III in the North Central Arkansas area.

Arkansas SAVES

Virtual Stroke Assistance in North Central Arkansas

Many of Arkansas’ rural hospitals without the support of a neurologist often forgo administration of tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), as they lack the staff resources to accurately identify and manage tPA candidates. Further, the window of time needed to effectively administer tPA is often lost when stroke patients are transported to a better-equipped, remote hospital. As such, Arkansas’ stroke patients are missing out on a quality-of-life-saving drug that significantly improves the chances of recovery while reducing permanent, stroke-related disability and, quite possibly, mortality.

AR SAVES (Stroke Assistance through Virtual Emergency Support) has implemented a stroke management system specifically targeting these shortcomings by increasing access to subspecialty expertise through telemedicine technology, thereby engineering a coordinated assessment and care-based plan for Arkansas’ stroke patients. Baxter Health is proud to be one of 48 partnering AR SAVES sites and is equipped with telemedicine technology to access a vascular neurologist 24/7.

STROKE is an Emergency - Every Minute Counts

When the warning signs of a stroke appear, don’t wait. Act fast by familiarizing yourself telltale signs of a stroke and call 911 immediately!

ACT F.A.S.T.

• Face: Facial droop / uneven smile
• Arm: Arm numbness / arm weakness
• Speech: Slurred speech / difficulty speaking or understanding
• Time: Call 911 and get to the Hospital immediately

Have the ambulance take you to Baxter Health to access our regional AR SAVES program. For more information on this program, visit http://arsaves.uams.edu/.