Health care professionals unite for trauma council

Sept. 08--HARLINGEN -- More than 70 local medical experts and emergency response agency personnel from across the Rio Grande Valley collaborated during a quarterly Trauma Regional Advisory Council meeting hosted at Harlingen Medical Center on Friday.

The Trauma Regional Advisory Council was started in the 1990s and is a way for all regional hospitals and local emergency response agencies to collaborate and achieve a wide variety of goals, officials said.

"We come together every quarter to collaborate and share ideas amongst the region in the fields of emergency medicine, trauma, stroke and cardiovascular care. It's done to improve the care we offer the citizens of the Rio Grande Valley," Mike Dillman, director of Emergency and Trauma Services at Harlingen Medical Center, said.

The quarterly meetings help first responders and medical personnel at hospitals stay on the same page when treating patients. Experts said it is also important to stay up to date on treatment options.

"We need to all be on the same page as far as improving our trauma and stroke care in the Valley and the community," Dillman said. "Health care is a very dynamic field, so we have to stay on top of that and offer the best type of integration of our local EMS services and our hospitals to make sure that we are on the same page when it comes to care."

jmendoza@valleystar.com

Copyright 2013 - Valley Morning Star, Harlingen, Texas