Preparing for an American College of Surgeons Virtual Trauma Reverification Site Visit: One Center's Experience

The American College of Surgeons (ACS), Committee on Trauma, trauma center verification process is designed to help hospitals improve trauma care. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic social distancing restrictions, performing virtual site visits was piloted.

The purpose of this article is to describe the first pilot ACS pediatric trauma center virtual reverification visit performed in the United States.

This is a descriptive review of a 2020 pilot virtual Level I pediatric trauma center reverification visit. In-person site visit checklists were altered to adjust to the virtual format. All documents, prereview questionnaire, patient charts, and resource documents were prepared electronically. Collaboration with the departments of information technology, clinical education and informatics, and the general counsel's office prepared the infrastructure to allow reviewers access to protected health information.

Multiple hospital departments collaborated to facilitate the transition to an electronic format. Organized virtual meeting room scheduling, communications, and coordination between the ACS staff, the reviewers, and the various hospital departments resulted in a successful virtual visit.

Lessons learned and opportunities for improvement were identified for this first-ever pilot virtual pediatric trauma center reverification site visit. Once the information technology logistic questions were answered, allowing reviewers protected health information access, the general program and document preparation for a virtual trauma reverification site visit was similar to an in-person site visit. Although the review day agenda was similar, execution challenges were identified.