Secretariat, Taipei City Government

Taipei City Fire Department (TFD) along with the Department of Health held the news conference “great Taipei emergency trauma care system: distribute by level for efficient care” on Dec.28, at the Emergency Operation Center of Taipei. The conference was hosted by Taipei City Mayor Ko Wen-je, and the participants included 8 representatives of trauma centers in Taipei City (NTU Hospital, Taipei Veteran General Hospital, etc.), and 3 representatives of severe emergency obligation hospitals in New Taipei City. The gathering of experts showed great determination to integrate emergency trauma care resources.
According to the mayor, compared to the sizable population in great Taipei area, there are only 3 major trauma centers in New Taipei City, while Taipei City has 8 of them. The great Taipei community has to integrate to achieve higher quality of emergency trauma care service. TFD has been cooperating with NTU Hospital, Wangfang Hospital and Shing Kong Hospital for 4 years, and established standard operation procedures (SOP), which was to distribute patients to different hospital by classifying their level of injuries. This procedure covered 5 administrative districts of Taipei City, and was for the paramedics to shorten onsite examination time. If a patient meets one of the standards, the ambulance will take the patient to the nearest trauma center instead of a regional hospital, and will notify the center to be prepared in advance. From now on, the integrated trauma care system has made the procedures applicable in the whole city. The goal of the system is to take the right patient to the right place at the right time, which is the value that all medical professionals around the world shared.
Ko also pointed that, besides SOP, the digitized ambulance transport records will be established. We can evaluate the efficiency of the system through key performance indicators (KPI) and make efficient use of resources. The collaboration between the 11 trauma centers in great Taipei area, and Formosa Association for the Surgery of Trauma, is definitely great news for the residents.
TFD reveals the procedures of the new system to address the importance of “patient distribution by injury level”. In the future, paramedics will not see distance proximity as the only priority. If the patient is severely injured, he/she will be transported to the most appropriate hospital, which is selected by computers and will be able to reduce fatality rate and disabling rate. The department also suggests that patients should not assign themselves to certain hospital (e.g. hospital that keeps your medical history record). The paramedics will provide professional care to the patients and take them to the right hospital for timely treatment.