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Local officials and representatives from St. Bernards Medical Center and the Arkansas Department of Health (ADH) were on hand April 8 to celebrate the receipt of the first installment of on-going funding for the hospital’s participation in the state’s new trauma system.
St. Bernards Medical Center has already received an initial payment of $125,000 as the first half of this year’s funding, and will qualify for on-going funding based on its level of participation in the new system.
Craighead County Health Administrator, Amy Howell presented the check to St Bernards President, Mr. Ben Owens and Mr. Chris Barber, Administrator. Dr. Joe Stallings, County Health Officer was also present for the event.
According to Paul Halverson, DrPH, F.A.C.H.E., Director and State Health Officer at ADH, the new system is making excellent progress toward becoming a fully-functioning entity that will save at least 200 lives every year. This system consists of a network of hospitals and the complete, up-to-the-minute information about them that allows hospital and emergency department personnel to make the best decisions for appropriate patient care. It also includes several other major parts, including everything from injury prevention to rehabilitation following a traumatic injury.
“It’s easy to see how important the trauma system is to our state,” Halverson said. “Every year, several thousand Arkansans die or are seriously incapacitated as the result of traumatic injuries from accidents. In fact, injury has been and remains the number one killer of Arkansans from ages one through 44. The sad fact is that many injuries and subsequent deaths are preventable. A comprehensive trauma system will help us dramatically reduce those numbers.”
“This week we celebrate the work that the hospitals are doing to get ready to be a part of the system,” Halverson said. “We are also seeing great progress in each of our major trauma system components—our Emergency Medical Services (EMS) component, the statewide communication network and call center, the Trauma Registry, Regional Tracking Systems, Injury Prevention and Rehabilitation—all of the pieces that need to be in place before the system can work as it is supposed to.”
Halverson said that the new system could be operating at a basic level in early 2011.
“We have already seen an improvement in our ability to handle serious injury here in the state, as the result of the new “dashboard” that has been up and running for some time now, and other improvements that have happened as hospitals and EMS providers across the state get ready to become a part of the statewide system.”
The first round of funding, announced this week, includes grants to 23 hospitals statewide, for a total of $1,212,500. This amount will grow as the remaining 49 hospitals that have expressed interest complete their grant proposals. Several hospitals in Pulaski County have also received funding and this will be announced in a separate release. Additional funds will be released as the other hospitals that have expressed interest in becoming trauma centers complete their grant proposals. The total amount available in the first year to hospitals for trauma system grants is $9,125,500. Funds are provided by a tax on tobacco products that was passed by the legislature in 2008.