The Trauma Center at Penn

Our Facebook page describes the activities of the Division of Trauma, Surgical Critical Care, and Emergency Surgical Services available within the Penn Medicine network. The PennSTAR Critical Care Transport program supports the mission of the Division of Trauma, Surgical Critical Care, and Emergency Surgical Services

The Trauma Center at Penn was established in 1988 as an accredited Level I Regional Resource Trauma Center serving the population locally here in West Philadelphia, as well as throughout the Philadelphia metropolitan area, through our PennSTAR Flight program. The Trauma Center at Penn has long been considered a national and international model of excellence in trauma and surgical critical care. All of the trauma surgeons are fellowship trained in trauma care and specialize in complex and high-acuity, multi-system trauma. With round the clock support from in-house trauma surgeons and emergency medicine physicians, as well as the dedicated support from the members of the departments of anesthesia, orthopedics, neurosurgery, plastics, ENT, OMF, ophthalmology, vascular, cardiothoracic and physical medicine and rehabilitation, as well as our trauma nurses and allied health partners, the Division of Trauma, Surgical Critical Care and Emergency Surgery at Penn Medicine is able to offer our patients the most advanced specialty care in the region. In addition to the flagship Trauma Program at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Trauma provides clinical and administrative support to our affiliated trauma programs at Reading Hospital and Medical Center in Reading, PA and St. Luke's Hospital in Bethlehem, PA.

Surgical Critical Care (SCC) focuses on the care of patients with complex surgical needs, most frequently intra-abdominal pathologies. Surgical Critical Care practices a multidisciplinary approach to the treatment of these patients, with both surgical and anesthesia intensivists, Critical Care Nurse Practitioners, Critical Care Fellows, residents from a variety of specialties, critical care nurses, pharmacists, respiratory therapists, clinical nutritionists, and others to name a few, all participating as members of the treatment team.

Emergency Surgical Services (ESS) offers in-house coverage by an attending surgeon with expedient operating room availability 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Expertise and vast experience in managing acute surgical emergencies include, but are not limited to; abdominal catastrophes secondary to bowel perforation, obstruction or fistulization, abdominal compartment syndrome, severe necrotizing soft tissue infections, and biliary obstruction. We cater to the highly complex general and emergency surgical issues that could overwhelm a community hospital’s human and technical resources.

The PennSTAR Critical Care Transport program provides both air and ground transport of critically ill or injured patients. With a fleet of 6 helicopters strategically located throughout the metropolitan Philadelphia and South Jersey regions, patients are never more than 20 minutes from a PennSTAR helicopter. The helicopters provide on-scene response for traumatic injuries, as well as performing inter-facility transports of patients with complex medical, surgical, or traumatic pathologies. Ground critical care ambulances are available for inter-facility transfer of patients located nearer to a Penn Medicine facility or when weather prohibits flight. The helicopter and ambulance crews each consist of critical nurses and paramedics with extensive experience in critical care transport medicine.