Recently, Lancaster General Health’s rural safety outreach efforts were recognized with a prestigious national award.
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The presenter, Dr. Eric Bradburn (holding award) is pictured with rural trauma prevention team members Brian Gross, Dr. Frederick Rogers, Sue Lackmann, and Dr. Michael Reihart.
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The Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma awarded the Cox-Templeton Injury Prevention Paper Award to LG Health and Dr. Eric Bradburn, DO, FACS, for the paper, “An Innovative Approach for Decreasing Hay Hole Falls in the Rural Anabaptist Population.”
A simple and low-cost device, the hay hole cover was devised after LG Health physicians noticed a growing number of Emergency Department patients, primarily from the Amish community, with head trauma and other injuries after falling through a hay hole.
Hay holes, generally located on the second story of a barn, are used to drop feed to animals below.
LG Health community health experts teamed up with the Penn State Agricultural Extension, Penn State Hershey Medical Center and the Pennsylvania Amish Safety Committee to create and distribute the hay hole covers. Within a year, the health system saw a 35 percent drop in the number of head trauma cases caused by hay-hole accidents.
Free hay hole covers will be distributed at the upcoming Farm & Family Safety Day events. For more information on these June farm safety events, see article below.