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Trauma Care at MUSC Health - Expertise, Research & Education Opportunities

Clinical Overview

Clinical care and trauma surgeons in the MUSC Department of Surgery provide surgical services at the MUSC Health Level 1 Trauma Center.

As the only ACS Level 1 verified Trauma Center in the Lowcountry, we provide the highest level of trauma care, at any time, day or night. Our experts use the latest treatments and advanced support services to return you to your everyday life, physically, mentally, and spiritually. For complex injuries, our trauma team coordinates with specialists including plastic and reconstructive surgeons, neurosurgeons, orthopedists, and internal medicine. The MUSC Children's Hospital trauma center is also ACS Level 1 verified. The Trauma Center is an important component of the statewide trauma system.

For Patients

Our facility: 

  • The MUSC Emergency Department Main Campus has five patient care pods, with three resuscitation bays.
  • All bays are equipped with advanced medical technology and cardiac monitoring.
  • The addition of the South Carolina Burn Center at MUSC Health in 2020 has greatly enhanced statewide trauma care. The South Carolina Burn Center is the state's only comprehensive burn center and is one of the few centers in the region. In addition to adult care, we are the only pediatric burn referral center in South Carolina, offering pediatric burn care at the MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children's Hospital. 
  • The Adult Burn Center has 25 beds and each room is equipped with radiant panels that heat the rooms to more than 90 degrees Fahrenheit for patient comfort. The Burn Center has one hydrotherapy room to make burn care easier and less painful.

Our services: 

  • 24-hour in-house coverage by board-certified general and acute care surgeons. 
  • Continuing education to our trauma team members and community health care providers and first responders.
  • Trauma program members provide significant leadership at the regional and state level. 
  • Referral source for nearby communities. 
  • Leadership in community education and outreach.
  • Teaching and research efforts that advance new technologies and treatment options. 
  • Dedicated resources for trauma survivors as well as wrap-around services to promote recovery.
  • Our primary air transport service is MedTrans, staffed with one pilot, one RN, and one paramedic.
  • LifeNet also has several helicopters that can be accessed if needed.
  • MUSC surgeons have a long history of leadership in the state.
  • Trauma Medical Director Evert Eriksson, M.D. is recognized at the regional, state, and national levels as a committed advocate for trauma care.

MUSC Educational Programs for Healthcare Providers

MUSC's trauma program is committed to supporting healthcare providers through trauma education. We offer education to our care team members and surrounding communities

The purpose of the Stop the Bleed® campaign is to make our nation more resilient by better preparing the public to save lives if people nearby are severely bleeding. This preparation is being done by raising awareness and teaching people how to learn three quick actions to control serious bleeding. AT MUSC, we offer Stop the Bleed® training to a wide array of community partners.

Recent articles: 

The TNCC is designed to provide the learner with cognitive knowledge and psychomotor skills. Nurses with limited emergency nursing clinical experience, who work in a hospital with limited access to trauma patients, or who need greater time at the psychomotor skill stations are encouraged to attend courses scheduled for the 20-hour format. This course, taught by qualified nurses prepares nurses with limited access to trauma patients with the knowledge, critical thinking skills and hands-on training needed to provide high-quality trauma nursing care. For more information, please contact Amy Riddle, MSN, RN, training coordinator, at 843-876-8027 or riddlea@musc.edu.

The Advanced Trauma Life Support® (ATLS®) program can teach you a systematic, concise approach to the care of a trauma patient. ATLS was developed by the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Committee on Trauma (COT) and was first introduced in the US and abroad in 1980. 

Its courses provide you with a safe and reliable method for immediate management of injured patients. The course teaches you how to assess a patient’s condition, resuscitate and stabilize him or her, and determine if his or her needs exceed a facility’s capacity. It also covers how to arrange for a patient’s inter-hospital transfer and assure that optimum care is provided throughout the process. If you don’t treat trauma patients frequently, an ATLS course provides an easy method to remember for the evaluation and treatment of a trauma victim. 

For doctors who infrequently treat trauma, the ATLS course provides an easy-to-remember method for evaluating and treating the victim of a traumatic event. For doctors who treat traumatic diseases on a frequent basis, the ATLS course provides a scaffold for evaluation, treatment, education, and quality assurance. In short, ATLS is a measurable, reproducible, and comprehensive system of trauma care.

Spring Training Schedule

For more information, please contact Shawn Crowley, MSN, RN, Trauma Program Manager at 843-792-0249 or crowleyh@musc.edu.

MUSC Trauma Program offers Instructor Classes to ensure instructors meet the ACS COT guidelines as stated that instructors:

  • Must complete the online or in-person update before teaching 10th Edition courses.
  • Must reverify every four years to retain a current faculty status.
  • Must teach a lecture and skill station in at least four Advanced Trauma Life Support® (ATLS®) courses during each cycle.
  • The course in which instructors complete their teaching requirements may count as one of the four required teaching episodes for the first reverification cycle.

For more information, please contact Shawn Crowley, MSN, RN, Trauma Program Manager at 843-792-0249 or crowleyh@musc.edu.

The mission of PHTLS is to promote excellence in trauma patient management by all providers involved in the delivery of prehospital care. PHTLS is developed by NAEMT in cooperation with the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma. The Committee provides the medical direction and content oversight for the PHTLS program. PHTLS courses improve the quality of trauma care and decrease mortality. The program is based on a philosophy stressing the treatment of the multi-system trauma patient as a unique entity with specific needs. PHTLS promotes critical thinking as the foundation for providing quality care. It is based on the belief that, given a good fund of knowledge and key principles, EMS practitioners are capable of making reasoned decisions regarding patient care.

Education, Research, Support Services & Community Outreach

Through our education, research, community outreach programs, injury prevention activities, and violence intervention program, we’re working hard to reduce the number of trauma patients in the Lowcountry, helping residents and visitors live longer, healthier lives.

MUSC's Department of Surgery Education program is committed to advancing the knowledge of MUSC General Surgery Residents through rotations in the Level 1 Trauma Center, Emergency Department and South Carolina Burn Center at the MUSC Health Main Hospital Center in Charleston, SC. These rotations provide opportunities for residents to work in the OR in emergent cases and assist with pre- and post-operative care. 

Established in 2006, our Surgical Critical Care Fellowship has a proven history of training some of the best critical care surgeons in the country. We consistently reach a 100% Board Pass Rate, 100 % Match Rate and 100% Job Placement! For more information, please contact Program Director Alicia Privette, M.D. or program coordinator Stephanie Mackie. 

Our faculty are nationally-recognized leaders in research and innovation. Our experts are reducing pain and recovery time to patients with chest wall injuries, introducing robotic surgery in emergent care, exploring ways to bioengineer constructs for complex hernia repair, and using mobile health to improve surgical site infection. Our faculty are also involved in important research that will reduce gun violence and prevent injuries.  

We are active community partners when it comes to protecting the people we serve. We work with local government, communities and schools to help prevent injuries.

And when traumatic injuries do occur, we offer support groups and the MUSC Health Trauma Survivors Network for patients looking to connect with one another and rebuild their lives after a serious injury. We also offer a telehealth-based Trauma Resiliency and Recovery Program for patients who suffered a traumatic injury. TRRP represents a multidisciplinary partnership between MUSC’s Department of Surgery (General Surgery, Trauma, and Surgical Critical Care), Department of Pediatrics (Emergency Medicine), College of Nursing (Technology Applications Center for Healthful Lifestyles), Center for Telehealth, and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences (National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center).

Our Turning the Tide Violence Intervention Program (TTVIP) aims to break the cycle of violent injuries, improve the support for patients and community members that experience violence, promote recovery for survivors and their families, and educate the MUSC community about violence prevention and intervention.