Dig Deeper: Trauma Centers

What Areas Are In Danger Of Losing Their Trauma Center & What’s Being Done To Help

(CBS)  Many of the nation’s trauma centers are themselves in a state of emergency. They’re losing money fast - and in at least a dozen regions, that’s putting 9-1-1 care in a state of crisis, CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann reported.

There are 768 trauma centers nationwide. Only 229 of them provide the expertise and care of a Level I. But without intervention, many of their failing finances could cause them to go under.

Is Your Area At Risk Of Losing A Trauma Center?

At least a dozen Type-1 Trauma centers are in serious fiscal distress, making them at high risk of closing. Where are they located?

Georgia

Hawaii

Illinois

Louisiana

Maryland

Massachusetts

Mississippi

New York

Tennessee (two)

Texas

Where Have Trauma Centers Have Closed* Since 2000

Level I Trauma Centers

California: L.A. County

Alabama: Carraway Methodist (Birmingham)

Tennessee: University of Tennessee Bowld Hospital (Memphis)

Level II

Arizona: Tucson

Pennsylvania: Brandywine (Coatsville)

Illinois (two): Proctor (Peoria) and Provena Good Samaritan (Danville)

Missouri: St. Joseph (Kansas City)

New Jersey: St. Peter's University Hospital (New Brunswick)

New York: Hudson Valley

Texas: Wadley (Texarkana)

Idaho (two): St. Alphonsus (Boise) and Portneuf Medical Center (Pocatello)

Level III

South Carolina (four): Aiken, Georgetown Memorial Hospital, Marion Memorial Hospital and Hilton Head

Texas: Wilson N. Jones

North Carolina: Carolina Pines

Ohio: Upper Valley Medical Center

*Closure defined as loss of ACS verification or state designation.

What’s Washington Doing?

On Nov. 7, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., proposed legislation that would provide $100 million to support trauma care centers across the country, including the only Level I trauma center serving the Northwest U.S. states of Washington, Alaska, Montana and Idaho. Murray said: “My bill will ensure that the strain of increased costs and charity care doesn't block the trauma care Americans rely on. It will ensure that by opening the doors of trauma care to all we are not causing the doors of some facilities to close for good."

Read Murray’s news release about the bill, called the National Trauma Care Stabilization Act, she sponsored here.

Or read the entire text of the bill here.

More resources

To check out the American Coalition for Trauma Care, click here.

The National Foundation for Trauma Care seeks to “secure the economic viability of America's Trauma Centers and foster the development of a national system of trauma care so that access to excellent care for the seriously injured is assured.”

More about the American Trauma Society can be found here.

Read all about it at the Journal of Trauma.

Find out more about the Society of Trauma Nurses here.

Check out Trauma.org, an independent, non-profit organization that educates and informs trauma-care professionals.

© MMVII, CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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by clancynme November 22, 2007 2:59 PM EST

I have many pet peeves regarding health care in this country, among them is the financial status of health care institutions. Hospitals, to use the word generically, are given 501(c)3 status both at the national, state and local levels with the belief that this no-tax status will allow for "charity" care. However, in most cases these institutions use bad debt write-off''s and other types of loses as their charity care rather than providing free or low cost services in the guise of charity. One only has to look to the city of Philadelphia and their social experiment in the 1990''s where they received a HCFA waiver to remove the 501(c)3 status at all levels except if they could document direct instances of "charity" care within the community.
Law provides no definition for what constitutes chartity care thus allowing things that, if looked at, would never meet the public''s definition.
Why is it that a health care institution can ruin a persons credit, if they don''t have any methods of payment or insurance when providing this type of care would fall under the definition of charity.
We need to strong arm our elected officials to start looking at these issues rather than trying to recreate the wheel. We might find that our system is better than it is generally perceived if it worked as it was intended. (when strong arming our elected officials we would also need to look at where political contributions come from so that a truely clean reform could occur)

Reply to this comment

by likeitis5050 November 16, 2007 12:02 PM EST

cowboypaul19 well, if the government steps in to provide funding...illegals will be the first to belly up to the table. Saying ''us not them'' is like asking Bill Clinton to ''drag but don''t inhale''. The illegals are the drain on resources, but we still have millions of bleeding hearts who are convinced ''they are improving our economy and not hurting anyone by being here illegally'', inspite of story and after story of resources being wiped out because of the demand by ''those who can''t pay''...which roughly translated...is 25% Americans use and 75% illegals abuse. Why are we allowing any other country or any of their loud mouthed representatives to dictate our laws? No other country is as tolerant of illegal immigration as this country and we''re sinking because of it, but now we have to justify our actions to some self-appointed, self-righteous group working to make our immigration laws and the enforcement of those laws off-limits to the very people for which these laws are written. And this is happening under Bush...the Democrats are absolutely dedicated to tossing the issue of border control and immigration enforcement into the toilet...grant amnesty...and call it a day. These people who believe any of these Democratic candidates who say they intend to control illegals AND provide free, free, free to Americans only'' have to be stuck on stupid to think every single one of them won''t end up paying for all this ''give away'' once the dust has settled.

Reply to this comment

by cowboypaul19 November 15, 2007 10:00 PM EST

Well, I think its time for the US Govt to get involved here, we can spend all this money for the war, which is a crock of , you know what, but we cant keep our Trauma centers staffed with qualified help and keep the places open, what is wrong with this ***????? We have to keep the trauma centers open, not for the illegals, which are draining our resources, but for us people that keep paying and paying, its time for us Americans to stand up and fight, and its time for our govt to start paying us back for what we have done for this country, not just put a uniform on and stand next to a jet fighter and not attend meetings because your father has lots of influence, then to become president, for two terms i have no idea how that happened, but its time to impeach him and get someone in there that knows what the hell they are doing, and get our troops home from this usless war that he started. How can that AH sleep at night???

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[clancynme]

I have many pet peeves regarding health care in this country, among them is the financial status of health care institutions. Hospitals, to use the word generically, are given 501(c)3 status both at the national, state and local levels with the belief that this no-tax status will allow for "charity" care. However, in most cases these institutions use bad debt write-off''s and other types of loses as their charity care rather than providing free or low cost services in the guise of charity. One only has to look to the city of Philadelphia and their social experiment in the 1990''s where they received a HCFA waiver to remove the 501(c)3 status at all levels except if they could document direct instances of "charity" care within the community.
Law provides no definition for what constitutes chartity care thus allowing things that, if looked at, would never meet the public''s definition.
Why is it that a health care institution can ruin a persons credit, if they don''t have any methods of payment or insurance when providing this type of care would fall under the definition of charity.
We need to strong arm our elected officials to start looking at these issues rather than trying to recreate the wheel. We might find that our system is better than it is generally perceived if it worked as it was intended. (when strong arming our elected officials we would also need to look at where political contributions come from so that a truely clean reform could occur)

[likeitis5050]

cowboypaul19 well, if the government steps in to provide funding...illegals will be the first to belly up to the table. Saying ''us not them'' is like asking Bill Clinton to ''drag but don''t inhale''. The illegals are the drain on resources, but we still have millions of bleeding hearts who are convinced ''they are improving our economy and not hurting anyone by being here illegally'', inspite of story and after story of resources being wiped out because of the demand by ''those who can''t pay''...which roughly translated...is 25% Americans use and 75% illegals abuse. Why are we allowing any other country or any of their loud mouthed representatives to dictate our laws? No other country is as tolerant of illegal immigration as this country and we''re sinking because of it, but now we have to justify our actions to some self-appointed, self-righteous group working to make our immigration laws and the enforcement of those laws off-limits to the very people for which these laws are written. And this is happening under Bush...the Democrats are absolutely dedicated to tossing the issue of border control and immigration enforcement into the toilet...grant amnesty...and call it a day. These people who believe any of these Democratic candidates who say they intend to control illegals AND provide free, free, free to Americans only'' have to be stuck on stupid to think every single one of them won''t end up paying for all this ''give away'' once the dust has settled.

[cowboypaul19]

Well, I think its time for the US Govt to get involved here, we can spend all this money for the war, which is a crock of , you know what, but we cant keep our Trauma centers staffed with qualified help and keep the places open, what is wrong with this ***????? We have to keep the trauma centers open, not for the illegals, which are draining our resources, but for us people that keep paying and paying, its time for us Americans to stand up and fight, and its time for our govt to start paying us back for what we have done for this country, not just put a uniform on and stand next to a jet fighter and not attend meetings because your father has lots of influence, then to become president, for two terms i have no idea how that happened, but its time to impeach him and get someone in there that knows what the hell they are doing, and get our troops home from this usless war that he started. How can that AH sleep at night???