First Response: The hospital working to cure the gun violence cycle
In the second episode of our three-part series, we look at Harborview Medical Center’s initiative to treat the long-term impacts of gunshot wounds.
Dr. Deepika Nehra, center, and the trauma surgery team perform a tracheotomy in the surgical ICU at Harborview Medical Center, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. Dr. Nehra, who often works with gunshot-wound patients, is the founder and medical director of Harborview’s violence intervention program. (Genna Martin for Cascade PBS)
There’s been a shift in how medical professionals think about gun violence: Many of them aren’t focused only on making sure a patient lives after being shot ... they’re also thinking about how to help these individuals recover and rebuild beyond the operating table.
This trend of looking at gun violence as a public health issue has taken shape across the United States, including at Harborview Medical Center. In 2021, the hospital launched its Violence Intervention and Prevention Program, which takes a holistic approach to helping patients affected by interpersonal gun violence.
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Dr. Deepika Nehra, third from left, and the trauma surgery team insert a feeding tube in the surgical ICU at Harborview Medical Center, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (Genna Martin for Cascade PBS)
People in the program connect with intervention specialists, who get a sense of patients’ needs, build rapport and offer support. This could mean anything from finding transportation to their appointments to help with paying their medical bills. The goal is for these patients to leave the hospital with more support than they had coming in — so they never have to return with a gunshot wound.
In the second episode of First Response, we speak to the people involved with creating and sustaining this program at Harborview about how the idea first came about; how it got started and how it’s evolved; why the program focuses on people affected by interpersonal gun violence; and some of the challenges that it faces.
Dr. Deepika Nehra, left, enters an operating room after scrubbing for a surgery. (Genna Martin for Cascade PBS)
