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Tacoma General opens new Trauma Center
The new Trauma Center at MultiCare Tacoma General Hospital, which opened to patients on Dec. 19, gives Southwest Washington residents a place to get quality care when they are injured.
The seven new rooms in the 14,000-square-foot Level 2 Trauma Center are dedicated to treating the sickest patients who need care in the Emergency Department. Patients come to Tacoma General suffering traumatic and often life-threatening injuries from automobile accidents, gunshots, assaults, falls and other mishaps.
The new rooms are more than twice the size of trauma rooms in the old Emergency Department. That means they hold all the equipment necessary to care for even the most complex cases and gives health care providers more room to work.
“Exceptional care has always been our mission. The new addition brings an even higher level of care for our time-sensitive, complex patients,” said Jill Fulkerson, RN, clinical director of the Tacoma General Emergency Department. “Patients around the South Sound and Southwest Washington will find the specialists and the technology they need here in Tacoma.”
Patients come to Tacoma General from King, Thurston, Kitsap, Mason, Grays Harbor and Lewis counties.
The new Trauma Center is located adjacent to the new Tacoma General Hospital Emergency Department, which opened in April.
A Level 2 trauma designation indicates that a trauma surgeon is on site when the facility is on trauma duty, which rotates between Tacoma General and St. Joseph Medical Center every 24 hours, and that orthopedists, anesthesiologists, neurosurgeons and other medical specialists can respond within 20 minutes of being called. The two hospitals celebrated 10 years of trauma service in Pierce County in June. The only other Level 2 trauma centers in the state are in Spokane and Vancouver.
The new trauma rooms complete a multi-year project to replace the aging Tacoma General and Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital Emergency Departments. Both departments opened to patients in April, 2010. During construction of the newest phase, Tacoma General shared trauma facilities with Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital, allowing the hospital to maintain care for the adult patients.
When Tacoma General is not on trauma duty, the rooms will be used for other patients seeking care in the Emergency Department.
Posted on Dec 20, 2010 in
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