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Wisconsin Trauma Registry

The Wisconsin Trauma Registry contains injury information from patients presenting to local hospitals (both trauma-designated and non-designated hospitals).

This data collection effort is a way to improve patient care, to provide trauma training, and to define a standard on which to measure care.

Wisconsin Admin. Code § DHS 118.09 provides the authority for the Department of Health Services to collect and analyze trauma system data to evaluate the delivery of adult and pediatric trauma care, develop injury prevention strategies for all ages, and provide resources for research and education.

Wisconsin Admin. Code § DHS 118.09(3) directs all hospitals, ambulance service providers and first responder services to submit data to the department on a quarterly basis determined by the department.

Trauma Registry portals

For assistance, please contact the DHS Trauma Team at DHSTrauma@dhs.wisconsin.gov, or the ImageTrend Support Team at support@imagetrend.com or 888-730-3255.

Wisconsin Trauma Registry schedule

The deadlines for data submission into the Wisconsin Trauma Registry are listed below. It is recommended that data records be entered into the registry as close to the discharge date as possible. Best practice is to complete and submit 80% of trauma records within 60 days of patient discharge.

Quarterly Trauma Registry submission
QuarterPatient's date of dischargeData submission due date
Quarter 1January 1–March 31May 31
Quarter 2April 1–June 30August 31
Quarter 3July 1–September 30November 30
Quarter 4October 1–December 31February 28

Resources

Account information FAQ

To request a username and password for the Wisconsin Trauma Registry, contact a user with hospital administrator access to your facility.

User accounts will be suspended after ten unsuccessful password attempts or 100 days without login to the Wisconsin Trauma Registry.

Passwords can be reset using the link provided on the login screen.

The system will require entry of an email address to send a temporary password. The email account entered for this temporary password must match the email in your trauma registry account.

Data FAQ

All hospitals that provide any level of care to trauma patients must submit data to the State Trauma Registry.

Hospitals have the option to purchase their own registry software and "upload" batch reports to the state registry or they can enter data directly into Wisconsin's trauma registry at no cost to the organization.

In-house traumatic injuries sustained after initial emergency department or hospital arrival and before hospital discharge at the index hospital (the hospital reporting data), and all data associated with that injury event, are excluded.

For example, an inpatient fall from bed while admitted for a medical reason would not be included in the state registry.

The purpose of Wisconsin's Trauma Care System is to reduce death and disability resulting from traumatic injury. 

The data in the trauma registry is used for performance improvement activities at the state, regional and local level.

All data sent to the State Trauma Registry is confidential and protected. Aggregate reports are designed to ensure that no single individual, hospital, or EMS provider can be identified.

In July of 2010, Wisconsin's Trauma Registry underwent several important changes:

  • A new URL (web address) – the vendor is now "hosting" the registry
  • A new look with several important upgrades
  • A "practice environment" to develop skills and become familiar with the newer version of the product

The Wisconsin Ambulance Run Data System (WARDS) Elite is a secure, web-based reporting system used by ambulance service providers to enter and submit their ambulance run information electronically via the Internet.

Wisconsin Trauma Care Facilities will not be given direct access to the WARDS Elite database. Facilities can access EMS reports via the Hospital Hub or through the integration between the Wisconsin Trauma Registry and WARDS Elite.

For more information regarding access to the Hospital Hub, contact your local Hospital Hub administrator.

The Hospital Hub is a database for hospital personnel to have access to the pre-hospital patient care reports for those patients transported to their facility a new Hospital Hub database has been made available.

This database will allow access to both previous WARDS v.2 reports as well as the new WARDS Elite v.3 reports.

Training and updates FAQ

Release notes are available for review within ImageTrend University. Release notes include information pertaining to software updates and fixes to the Patient Registry product.

Not all updates included in the release notes will apply to the Wisconsin Trauma Registry.

3/14/2024, 2 – 3 p.m. Patient Registry Office Hours: This will be a structured meeting for Patient Registry with time for Q&A at the end. The topic will be importing data into an incident. Information on EMS runs and referring facilities will be covered. Register for the March 14 meeting.

For additional educational materials, refer to ImageTrend University or State Trauma Registry staff at DHSTrauma@dhs.wisconsin.gov.

Free in-person training with ImageTrend

Contact the Trauma Team at DHSTrauma@dhs.wisconsin.gov for further information.

Last revised March 13, 2024