An article in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons discussed how a new scoring system can help hospitals improve care during surges of trauma cases such as those from accidents (such as the recent Amtrak derailment) and natural disasters.

Trauma surgeon Peter C. Jenkins, M.D., and a team of researchers from Indiana University and elsewhere developed the Trauma Surge Index (TSI) scoring system.

The TSI, scaled to an individual hospital’s profile, represents the severity of each patient’s injury, and the time and date of each patient’s admission to the hospital. It ranks surge activity on a scale from 0 to 8 (including “greater than 8” as the highest score).