TraumaTies Episode 3: Trauma & Healthcare
Episode Summary
With multiple degrees and residency experience from some of the nation’s top schools and hospitals, such as Stanford Medical School, Georgetown, and Johns Hopkins, Dr. Erin C. Hall has no shortage of experience and expertise under her belt, which is why she is employed at one of the top trauma centers in the country.
On this week’s episode of Trauma Ties, brought to life by the Network for Victim Recovery of DC (NVRDC) and hosted by Bridgette Stumpf and Lindsey Silverberg, Dr. Hall discusses her work as a trauma surgeon at MedStar Washington Hospital Center and the Medical Director for both the Surgical Intensive Care Unit and the Community Violence Intervention Program (CVIP).
During this episode, the three women delve into the lasting realities of physical trauma and the ways in which Dr. Hall, through her work with CVIP, hopes to bridge the gap between acute and immediate medical care and the lasting physical and emotional effects of trauma.
“[A hospital] can be a place that has an unbelievable amount of resources to help [patients]. So, can we build that bridge between the person laying in bed in a hospital gown…and really practical ways to make [their] life better or to set [them] on a pathway that [they] define for [themselves]? Can we help with that? Our program employs treatment navigators, who are folks with lived experience with trauma, to help bridge that gap to serve as translators,” Dr. Hall says of the incredible initiatives from CVIP.
Featured Guest
Name: Dr. Erin C. Hall, MD MPH FACS
What she does: Dr. Hall is a trauma surgeon at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, where she serves as Medical Director for the Surgical Intensive Care Unit and the Medical Director of the hospital’s Community Violence Intervention Program.
Company: MedStar Washington Hospital Center
Words of wisdom: “There is a beauty to surgery and to operating in those moments where there are very clear questions that absolutely matter, and everything else falls away. And so the priorities are very clear.”
Key Points
Top takeaways from this episode
Health is a human right. This includes mental and physical health, something Dr. Hall is on a mission to prioritize within informed trauma care. For her, success as a surgeon is no longer just about keeping the patient alive; it’s about seeing to it that that patient gets quality care as they face the aftermath of physical trauma.
Compassion and empathy go a long way. When a patient experiences physical trauma, they will often have a future of trauma to navigate as well, if not already a history with it. For these patients, facing it all can be a little easier with healthcare professionals who are equipped with compassion, empathy, and understanding.
Moving toward patient-lead care. Dr. Hall believes any work done by CVIP that follows patients and their medical care post-hospital stay should be led entirely by the patient themselves and what they feel the most open to and comfortable with.
Episode Highlights
[05:15] Striving for change: Dr. Hall discusses the sequelae of the patients she sees in the trauma operation room. In other words, the effects of the patient’s trauma aside from just the physical injuries, such as the mental, emotional, and social changes that are also a result of their pain.
[11:10] The seen and unseen: Host Bridgette Stumpf conveys the differences between physical and psychological trauma, which ultimately comes down to the one being visible (physical) and the other being invisible (psychological).
[16:04] Human rights: Dr. Hall believes, unequivocally, that health is a human right. One of the aspects she loves so much about being a trauma surgeon is the lack of judgment in the OR. When a patient comes in, there is no time for wondering who they are outside of a person in need of immediate help.
[20:07] CVID: As the Medical Director of MedStar Health Community Violence Intervention Program, Dr. Hall talks about bridging the gap between inpatient medical treatment and post-treatment care for the six months following patient discharge.
[29:11] The value of understanding: Bridgette details her own personal trauma and experiences with medical professionals when it felt as though they did not care about or understand her worries and concerns.
[47:13] Trauma-informed care: Working at one of the nation’s top centers for trauma care, Dr. Hall talks about seeing a shift in care and language. She says there is a real shift toward all encompassing trauma-informed care.
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Brought to you by Network for Victim Recovery of DC (NVRDC), TraumaTies: Untangling Societal Harm & Healing After Crime is a podcast that creates space and conversations to dissect the structural and systemic knots that keep us from addressing trauma.
Rooted in a belief that survivors of crime deserve respect for their dignity in the aftermath of victimization, NVRDC seeks to empower survivors by informing them of all of the options available and working to transform existing response systems to be more inclusive of the diverse needs that survivors often have after crime.
NVRDC also provides free, holistic, and comprehensive advocacy, case management, and legal services to victims of all crime types in Washington, DC. Visit our website to learn more about how to access our trauma-informed education training and how to partner with us to expand survivor-defined justice.
Top quotes from the episode:
[05:50] Dr. Hall: “We can't keep saying that success is a heartbeat at the door. It just doesn't make sense. For decades, trauma surgeons have patted themselves on the back when somebody doesn't die during their hospitalization. So, it doesn't matter what functional status, emotional status, bankruptcy status, employment status, or education status somebody is in when they leave. As long as they have a heartbeat, that's a win — and it's just not enough.”
[16:02] Dr. Hall: “Health is a human right. We don't know who the person is in front of us when they come in. We don't know what their insurance status is. We don't know what their name is. We don't know what they've done, and it doesn't matter. [The OR] is one of the few places in medicine, or maybe in the world, or in the country, where that's true, where we don't make assumptions, and it just really doesn't matter. We will go to the line, sometimes even beyond the line, on the quest to save this person.”
[17:57] Bridgette: “Patients coming in with real physical trauma wounds have, not only a future trauma to navigate, but often a historical [experience with it] — whether that's circumstantial by society, based on structural design of racism, and/or other forms of oppression, or if it’s lived experiences or other marginalized identities.”