ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) — First responders and trauma teams sharpened their life-saving skills Wednesday at Phoebe’s Simulation and Innovation Center. The hospital hosted hands-on trauma simulations as part of a new pilot program helping rural hospitals across Georgia.

A 2022 study by Branas and colleagues found nearly 47 million people live more than an hour from a high-level trauma center. That gap inspired Dr. Erika Simmerman Mabes, a trauma and acute care surgeon at the Medical College of Georgia, to launch a rural, interactive trauma simulation course.

“We recognize the need that rural providers wanted more training in trauma simulation, trauma procedures, and trauma protocols,” Mabes said. “And recognizing this need, we developed this course that is a combination of a two-hour interactive didactics portion, actually going through deconstructed trauma scenarios with key decision-making points.”

Mabes started the program in August and has been traveling the state with a colleague, teaching practical trauma skills to hospital teams. The focus is working with the resources they do have, so even if a facility is not a Level I trauma center, staff can stabilize a patient before transfer.

“I think the actual process and the procedures is the same as what you would use in real life,” Mabes said. “We do try to tailor the course to different facilities depending on what their resources are or what they might actually see or be able to do. Since this is a multidisciplinary approach, a lot of it is teaching how providers can work with each other and support each other. So, let’s say you’re a nurse that you don’t actually do the intubations, but how can you help someone else do the intubations?”

Phoebe hosted the team on Wednesday to train EMS and trauma providers. Leon Dent, a Phoebe trauma surgeon, said the training is critical for smaller hospitals that often have to refer patients elsewhere.

“Well, there’s something called the golden hour of trauma, where if you can get patients stabilized, stop the bleeding, they have a higher chance of survival,” Dent said. “And so, one of the major tasks for the outlying hospitals that aren’t trauma centers is to be able to stabilize those patients and then transfer them to a trauma center.”

The session is a pilot, and organizers are working to bring more smaller medical centers to future trainings.

The training comes on National Trauma Survivors Day. Phoebe posted that May is “dedicated to celebrating the resilience and recovery of patients who have experienced traumatic injuries.”

The health system spotlighted Saveio’n Nallie, who was injured in a motorcycle crash in 2023.

“EMTs weren’t sure he would survive the trip to the hospital, but the Phoebe Trauma Team and Orthopedic Trauma Surgeon Dr. Eddie Powell stopped the bleeding and patched up Saveio’n,” the health system wrote. “Now, he’s back on his feet and back on his bike. Today, we salute Saveio’n, the 1,000+ trauma patients cared for each year at Phoebe, and all the people associated with Phoebe Trauma Services who are saving lives every day.”

You can hear Saveio’n’s story of healing below:

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