Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Patients in central and southern Utah suffering severe trauma no longer need to go to Salt Lake to get the care they need.
Trauma patients in the emergency room rely on the doctors for their lives. Now Utah Valley Regional Medical Center has been designated a level two trauma center. Trauma medical director Dr. Craig Cook says it took 10 years of upgrades and retraining of staff. It requires numerous specialists and facilities to be available around the clock, as well as measured improvement in care.
Cook said, "It's a matter of having an emergency room doctor, a respiratory therapist, a radiologist in the radiology department and a trauma surgeon ready to go, and an operating room open at a moment's notice, and an anesthesiologist ready to go and a critical care team in the ICU ready."
This is the only trauma center between Point of the Mountain to Las Vegas, and it means patients from central and southern Utah can get to a trauma center a little quicker. Cook says the faster a critical injured patient gets to a trauma center, the better chances they have to live.
Trauma injuries are the leading cause of death to people under the age of 44, and research has found that patients who are treated at a trauma center have a 25 percent better chance of survival.
Life Flight has been stationed at the hospital since 2004, and a medical helicopter program is also a must for a hospital to have a level two trauma certification. The difference between a level two and level one trauma center is that for a hospital to be considered a level one, it must have a medical research program.
E-mail: rjeppesen@ksl.com
E-mail: spenrod@ksl.com
