© 2024 Ideastream Public Media

1375 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44115
(216) 916-6100 | (877) 399-3307

WKSU is a public media service licensed to Kent State University and operated by Ideastream Public Media.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
News
To contact us with news tips, story ideas or other related information, e-mail newsstaff@ideastream.org.

University Hospitals Opens Adult Level 1 Trauma Center

(Photo Courtesy University Hospitals).

by Sarah Jane Tribble

After months of controversy, University Hospitals  quietly opened its Level 1 trauma center today.

UH leaders say they have spent three years planning, hiring staff and working to achieve verification from the American College of Surgeons to become the region's second adult Level 1 trauma center. 

This means UH is now able to treat the most severely injured patients, often from car crashes and knife-and-gunshot wounds. The opening also marks a change in the way Northeast Ohio's trauma response will be coordinated. 

For years, MetroHealth System on Cleveland's near West side has been the region's only level 1 trauma center. MetroHealth officials along with the Northern Ohio Trauma System, a network that includes the region's existing trauma centers, have strongly opposed UH's opening. Leaders say more trauma centers means more doctors getting less daily experience in trauma care and that could lead to negative outcomes and hurt patient care. 

UH leaders say they have done their due diligence to assess if there is a need for the service. They say they are responding to an increased demand for emergency department and trauma services on the city's east side since the closure of Huron Hospital in 2011.

#