Hospitals Around the Nation Taking Notice of Wisconsin's Froedtert Hospital

Tuesday, May 28th, 2024 -- 1:01 PM

(Trevor Hook, Wisconsin Public Radio) As southeastern Wisconsin’s only level one trauma center, Froedtert Hospital treats around 90 percent of gun-related injuries in the city of Milwaukee.

According to Trevor Hook with Wisconsin Public Radio, last year, that included almost 840 nonfatal shootings, despite a slight drop in those incidents over the previous year.

In 2020, Froedert founded the Trauma Quality of Life Clinic to help gun violence survivors address the many issues that can arise after the physical healing from a gunshot wound.

Hospitals in other parts of the country are taking notice of the holistic approach. When a person enters the Trauma Quality of Life Clinic, medical staff treat wounds and address pain.

Clinic director Colleen Trevino said staff from other disciplines then work with patients to address issues outside the hospital. “We have a social worker who can provide resources for food, housing and transportation,” Trevino said in an interview with WPR’s “Wisconsin Today.”

“We have a physical therapist who will reevaluate them to determine if they need further rehab. We also have our 414LIFE hospital-based violence interrupters, who are also in the clinic to address safety and concerns for retaliation as well.”

Froedtert Hospital reports more than 300 gun violence survivors treated at Froedtert Hospital have used the clinic’s resources since 2020. Research on the clinic published in February found that a vast majority of clinic attendees scheduled and attended follow-up appointments with the clinic after being discharged.  “It’s probably the most interesting change that we have been able to experience as clinicians in the last five years,” Trevino said.

Research from 2019 finds nearly 50 percent of gunshot survivors reported testing positive for post-traumatic stress disorder. The same study finds that these patients were more likely to be unemployed and abuse substances after initial recovery from a gunshot wound.

Data collected by Froedtert’s Trauma Quality of Life Clinic paints a similar picture. Screenings from the clinic found nearly 80 percent of patients were at risk for PTSD and 50 percent were at risk for depression.

Terri deRoon-Cassini is a psychologist with the clinic and director of the Comprehensive Injury Center at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Her work focuses on early intervention to prevent distress and the development of PTSD following trauma.

“The part of our brain that’s responsible for helping us to understand situations that should be deemed fearful… that part of our brain kind of goes on overdrive (after being shot),” deRoon-Cassini said.

“That leads people to want to avoid people and places and situations, which then really isolates people. In turn, they’re not establishing or reestablishing positive prosocial connections with other people.”

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