In a statement, HCA leaders said the chain's pursuit of Level 2 designations was a response to growing emergency care needs in their communities, noting roughly 30 percent growth in such visits at both facilities in the past five years.įormal American College of Surgeons designation as Level 2 trauma centers is expected for the two HCA facilities this fall, Memorial Hermann The Woodlands in mid-2017 and Memorial Hermann Southwest sometime in 2018. That's the single most important reason why Memorial Hermann has chosen to upgrade trauma capabilities." "Access to high-quality trauma care saves lives. "Outside Memorial Hermann and Ben Taub, no one else has stepped up to meet the need," said Chuck Stokes, chief operating officer of the Memorial Hermann system. They said last week that upgrading to Level 2 centers at strategic locations is good for the region. No public agency in Texas has the power to plan, finance and implement a regional trauma system so the task historically has fallen to hospital leaders, often reacting to market forces. Projections call for it to grow to 7.1 million by 2020, an amount Pile equates with adding Nashville and Oklahoma City to the region. The Houston legislative pleas produced no new Level 1 centers and, in the time since, the region has continued to mushroom. Its year-long closure after Hurricane Ike brought an influx of patients to the medical center. There is also an adult Level 1 trauma center at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, though it is outside the Southeast Texas Regional Advisory Council's nine-county coverage area. Ben Taub is still trying to secure funding to increase its number of operating rooms, criticized in an American College of Surgeons report last year as lacking. Memorial Hermann's trauma center is already the nation's busiest. The Level 1 trauma centers of Ben Taub and Memorial Hermann are considered among the nation's best, but they'd have a hard time handling a mass crisis themselves. More complex cases referred to higher-level centers after emergency procedure and stabilization. Level 3: Provide prompt assessment of seriousness of cases and 24-hour in-house care by emergency medicine physicians. Select neurosurgery cases may still be referred to a Level 1. Level 2: Provide 24-hour in-house care for the most serious injuries in all specialties except pediatrics, burns and microsurgery for reattaching limbs. Operate teaching and research programs in conjunction with a medical school. Level 1: Provide 24-hour in-house care for the most serious injuries in all specialties. Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital, 7600 Beechnut, Houston Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Hospital, 9250 Pinecroft, The WoodlandsĬlear Lake Regional Medical Center, 500 Medical Center Blvd., WebsterĬonroe Regional Medical Center, 504 Medical Center Blvd., Conroe Level 3 centers, the designation currently held by the four facilities seeking Level 2 status, must be able to stabilize patients with the most serious injuries, but thereafter usually transfer them to Level 1 centers. Level 2 centers typically don't have the same depth of resources, but meet the same clinical care standards, differing mostly only in that they do not conduct research or train residents. Among them: 25 percent of patients with severe injuries who required transfer to a major trauma center died on days when the emergency departments of both Ben Taub Hospital and Memorial Hermann diverted ambulances to other facilities.īen Taub and Memorial Hermann, located next to each other in the Texas Medical Center, are the city's two Level 1 centers, which provide total care for every aspect of the most serious injuries. In the early 2000s, Houston doctors urging the state Legislature to create another area Level 1 trauma center cited similarly sobering local statistics. It said as many as 20 percent of the 147,790 trauma deaths in 2014 may have been preventable. trauma care varies greatly depending on when and where an individual is injured and calling on the White House to establish a national trauma care system. The National Academy of Sciences, the nation's most distinguished organization of scientists, Friday released a report noting that the quality of U.S. Said one doctor: "Right now, in trauma care, where you live determines if you live." There, many likely survived because the shooting occurred just two blocks from Orlando Regional Medical Center's Level 1 trauma. Pile and other leading trauma officials said the addition of four Level 2 centers would help in an event like last week's shooting in Orlando, Fla.
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