CINCINNATI -- A group of doctors traveled from Poland to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center to study the hospital’s pediatric trauma services in the hopes of creating their own center in Poland.
Doctors and EMT’s from Gdansk, Poland came to Children’s last week to observe one of the country’s largest children’s hospital-based trauma services. They were inspired to visit the Queen City after they saw a webinar from Children’s on trauma care.
Dr. Piotr Rychlik, an emergency room doctor at Copernicus Hospital, hoped the visit would help the initiative to develop a Pediatric Trauma Center in Poland.
The Polish-American Society of Greater Cincinnati raised $5,000 to help bring the team to Cincinnati.
Dr. Richard Falcone, director of Children’s Trauma Services, said the collaboration held true to the hospital’s mission to help provide the best quality of care for children across the globe.
“They reached out to us and said, ‘I wonder if we can do this with you in Poland,’ and we said, ‘Sure, we're willing to give it a try,’” Falcone said.
The Polish team worked with specialists in Children’s simulation labs, where they handled stressful situations in a setting that felt real.
The patients in the labs are mannequins, but they have vital signs, and their chests rise and fall like they’re breathing. Every decision is carefully recorded and evaluated, and the team is debriefed in a classroom after they have completed caring for the “patient.”
Rychlik said the simulation lab was “stressful,” but the lessons learned were invaluable, and each drill brings the team one step closer to having a pediatric trauma center of their own.
Cincinnati doctors may visit Copernicus Hospital to see how the Polish team is doing with their center. Children’s officials hope Copernicus becomes a pediatric trauma center so other hospitals will follow suit.
