The TriStar Skyline Trauma Center was placed back on provisional status for another year by the Tennessee Board of Licensing Health Care Facilities, after inspectors published a report citing numerous failures by the staff. According to The Tennessean, Skyline fared poorly when it came to people with traumatic brain injuries, claiming that a number of people with TBI whose TRISS trauma injury severity score, or TRISS, indicated a “high probability of survival” died under their care.
In response the chief medical officer of TriStar Health, Dr. Jeff Guy, claimed that a number of the patients who died after sustaining a wound had underlying complications, or had “Do Not Resuscitate” (DNR) orders – that it was not, in fact, Skyline’s fault that the patients had passed away. Dr. “Guy noted that Skyline’s trauma mortality rate is 2.87 percent, significantly better than the state rate of 4.3 percent and the national rate of 4.47 percent.”
Additional problems with Skyline
The high mortality rate of patients with traumatic brain injuries was just one of many problems found by inspectors. The report also cites:
- Delays in care or treatment, specifically for patients with TBI
- Keeping trauma patients with other emergency room patients, thus leading staff to ignore or miss the needs of trauma patients
- Keeping patients in the facility who should have been transported to a Level I trauma center
- Failure to recognize patients with blocked airways
- Failure to recognize patients exhibiting the symptoms of shock
- Failure to recognize patients exhibiting severe low blood pressure
- Failure to put a clear action plan in place for resolving problems
Dr. Guy offered rebuttals to each of the problems cited, claiming that TriStar Health “stand[s] behind the quality of our trauma program and the protocols that are in place to ensure the highest standard of care. All good clinical programs are constantly improving their processes,” and that Skyline has a rigorous peer-review system designed to make recommendations.
Whether or not Skyline can make the appropriate and needed changes in order to approve remains to be seen; they will have another provisional year in order to fix their mistakes and improve their performance. But for now, it appears that 26 people with traumatic brain injuries are dead after receiving care from Skyline – 26 deaths that Dr. Guy and TriStar Health are attempting to explain away with a clerical error: their responses weren’t slow, they say – they simply failed to record the accurate time, is all.
Maybe it’s true. Likely it’s not. Either way, 26 families have been destroyed because of something that happened at the TriStar Skyline Trauma Center, and it seems that Skyline isn’t talking about it. That doesn’t sit right with us – not by a long shot.
If you have questions about the mortality rate of TBI victims at Skyline, or if you believe you or your loved one is the victim of medical negligence, we might be able to help. Contact Rocky McElhaney to learn more.
