Erin Zeigler, CRNP

Expert Trauma Care Close to Home

The Trauma Center at Meritus is the busiest in Western Maryland and stands ready 24/7 to provide the highest quality injury care for our community and region. At Meritus, we recognize that the day you suffer an injury is often the “worst day of your life”, and so we have committed to 24/7 in-house trauma surgeons and advanced practice providers (APPs), emergency medicine physicians, anesthesia personnel, emergency and trauma nurses, operating room staff, on-call surgical consultants, and support services for blood, laboratory and radiology, all part of the trauma team essential to providing the highest quality of care.

At Meritus, we have fully equipped and dedicated trauma resuscitation rooms in the Emergency Department. The expert trauma team’s response is organized to provide rapid life-saving care upon arrival of the patient, when every second counts. From the rapid assessment using our state-of-the-art ultrasound machines dedicated to the trauma rooms to immediately available portable xrays to the trauma-dedicated CT scanner adjacent to the trauma rooms, all the skills and technology are available to rapidly detect life-threatening internal bleeding. A trauma operating room also stands by for those that need emergency trauma surgery to control bleeding internally.

Meritus is the only hospital in Western Maryland that stocks Low-Titer O Whole Blood (LTOWB). The use of LTOWB in severely injured has been shown to be life saving first in military experience of the past two decades and subsequently in severely injured in the US. Unlike blood components such as RBCs, plasma, and platelets, LTOWB contains all the components of blood that are lost when a person bleeds and so provides the best method of resuscitation for the severely injured. At Meritus, LTOWB is immediately available for every trauma patient who is in hemorrhagic shock (massive bleeding enough to cause shock) and can be rapidly transfused within minutes of patient arrival when time counts.

The 24/7 in house trauma team also provides full care of the injured from the moment of arrival in the trauma resuscitation room to the operating room and ICU. The same trauma team provides continuity of care throughout the whole hospital stay. In addition, specialists in physical therapy, occupational therapy and case management assess, advise and accompany the as they begin their journey of recovery. Most patients will continue to be monitored by the same trauma team in our trauma clinic after being discharged.

Interested in holding an Injury Prevention Event? Click here to fill out our online interest form.

Trauma and Acute Care Surgery Department Introduction

Trauma and Acute Care Surgery Department Tour

Meet the Trauma and Acute Care Surgery Team

Trauma Program Manager: Tamara Baughman BSN, RM, CEN, TCRN

Injury Prevention Specialist/Base Station Coordinator/EMS Liaison/Safe Kids Washington County Coordinator: Jessica Griffith BSN, CEN

Trauma Registry Specialists:

• Susie Burleson DNP, MBA, RN, NE-BC
• Casey Fleece LPN
• Brittany Jobes BSN, RN
• Brittany Johnson LPN
• Alex Ryder
• Mackenzie Shepherd BSN, RN
• Bethany Henson Whitmore