National Trauma Care System Act

National Trauma Care System Act

This bill establishes the Task Force on Eliminating Preventable Deaths or Disabilities due to Traumatic Injuries, which shall: (1) develop a plan to establish a national trauma care system to facilitate the U.S. ability to eliminate preventable deaths related to injuries, eliminate trauma-related disabilities, and respond to mass trauma incidents; and (2) establish specific goals and milestones, and federal responsibilities, to carry out the plan.

The task force shall ensure that each budget of the President submitted to Congress requests sufficient funding to develop and support the system, and that the system:

• includes mechanisms for accountability and a data-driven research agenda,
• ensures military and civilian trauma systems collect and share common data,
• is developed and carried out in a manner that reduces regulatory and legal barriers to the full integration of the trauma continuum of care, and
• is capable of responding domestically to any mass casualty incident.

The task force shall develop and implement a national trauma research action plan.

The Department of Health and Human Services shall:

• develop and publish standards for trauma care in pre-hospital and hospital settings;
• identify, evaluate, and implement policies to ensure coordination between pre-hospital and hospital trauma care;
• work to facilitate the collection and sharing of data among federal and non-governmental trauma systems;
• revise and clarify existing regulations to minimize barriers to the use and disclosure of protected health information with respect to trauma care; and
• ensure the civilian trauma systems participate in a structured trauma quality improvement process.

The Department of Defense (DOD) shall:

• submit and implement a plan to establish a Joint Trauma System within the Defense Health Agency that promotes improved trauma care,
• seek to contract with a non-governmental entity to conduct a system-wide review of the military trauma system,
• establish a Joint Trauma Education and Training Directorate to ensure that the military trauma care providers maintain readiness and are able to be rapidly deployed for future armed conflicts,
• partner with civilian trauma centers,
• determine the number of military trauma care providers that must be maintained within DOD to meet the requirements of the combatant commands, and
• report on the activities of the Secretarial Designee Program.

Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov