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Become a member and receive career-enhancing benefits

Our top priority is providing value to members. Your Member Services team is here to ensure you maximize your ACS member benefits, participate in College activities, and engage with your ACS colleagues. It's all here.

Become a Member
Become a member and receive career-enhancing benefits

Our top priority is providing value to members. Your Member Services team is here to ensure you maximize your ACS member benefits, participate in College activities, and engage with your ACS colleagues. It's all here.

Membership Benefits
ACS

National Trauma Data Standard (NTDS) Data Dictionary

National Trauma Data Standard (NTDS) Data Dictionary

What Is the NTDS?

In our efforts to improve trauma patient care, the ACS Committee on Trauma (COT) created the National Trauma Data Standard (NTDS). The first NTDS Data Dictionary was implemented in 2007 and served to ensure that all participating trauma centers were submitting the data required by the COT based on standard definitions and formats.

Why Create a Standardized Dataset?

The NTDS will be useful in:

  • Developing nationwide trauma benchmarks
  • Evaluating hospital and trauma systems patient outcomes
  • Facilitating research efforts
  • Determining national trends in trauma care
  • Addressing resources for disaster and domestic preparedness
  • Providing valuable information on other issues or areas of need related to trauma care
Goals and Objectives

The NTDS has two primary goals and objectives:

  • To define a standard set of clinical data elements that characterize trauma care at the hospital level.
  • To provide meaningful inter-hospital comparisons.
History of the NTDS

1995 – Original NTDS Elements Defined

The ACS Committee on Trauma (COT) convened a consensus conference with the ATS, HRSA, NHTSA, CDC, and representatives from all trauma registry programs to define the NTDS data elements.  

1997 – First Call for Data  

2006 – New Data Dictionary Released

The NTDB releases the National Trauma Data Standard (formerly National Trauma Registry) data dictionary, developed in collaboration with HRSA, state trauma managers, trauma registry vendors, and other stakeholders in the trauma community.

2009 – TQIP Pilot Launched

2010 – TQIP Began

2012 – TQIP Process Measures Added

2014 – First NTDS Pilot Project

2015 – Piloted Fields Added

2015 – Aligned Hospital Complications and Co-Morbid Conditions

2017 – 10th Anniversary of the NTDS

Additional Benefits

Business Structure and Management Assistance

The dataset will provide a business model for the injury community. This model will help develop:

  • Protocols that are justified by factual evidence
  • Budgets that can be defended by actual data
  • A method to analyze performance of trauma services
  • State-to-state comparison models
  • Benchmarks for standards of care

Drive Policy and Funding

The dataset will allow hospitals to:

  • Determine areas for potential QA intervention
  • Provide data to justify new funding or support existing programs
  • Provide a basis for ongoing funding support

Education—Trauma Training and Curricula

The dataset promotes the importance of trauma care in the health care system by:

  • Providing a better understanding of injury trends
  • Improving the quality of trauma treatment
  • Modifying the existing injury prevention education and other programs

Evaluating Patient and Injury Outcomes

The dataset will help:

  • Establish reliable outcome measures
  • Monitor trauma systems
  • Determine which treatments are effective
  • Identify and reduce errors
  • Identify unmet needs and priorities
  • Focus on data-driven decision making
  • Evaluate patients throughout the spectrum of care

Evaluating Resources for Disaster and Domestic Preparedness

The dataset will provide opportunities for improvement of current disaster policies, procedures, and preparedness by:

  • Providing further analysis tools for FEMA and other organizations
  • Providing better data for disaster research

Facilitating Research Efforts

The dataset will provide access to a national trauma database and Trauma Quality Improvement Program, which will:

  • Identify national trends
  • Provide a large sample of standardized data
  • Allow opportunities to generate research hypotheses
  • Facilitate national benchmarking

Getting Started

Start your transition to the new data dictionary right here. Review all pertinent information about the background of the NTDS Data Dictionary. When you’re ready to begin implementing the new data dictionary in your own registry, contact your trauma registry software vendor. Most software vendors have been working with the TQP and can offer you a solution that will allow you to provide data to the TQP, as well as maintain the information you need for your hospital and state.

NTDS Revision Site

The NTDS Data Dictionary is a living, changing document. To continue improving the quality of the data we collect, we welcome your suggestions for revisions to the dictionary. You will be asked your rationale for all suggested changes. All suggestions will be reviewed by the American College of Surgeons (ACS) NTDS Workgroup.

Submit a Suggestion