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Many injuries can't be handled by the facilities in the shoals. Burns, amp-u-t-ations(spaced because the swear filter), hand injuries, serious head injuries, etc. etc. The facilities we have are great but you have to realize when certain injuries/illnesses are over their head and must be transferred to a greater care.

If you are really interested in reading about what our local trauma system plan is, here is a link:

http://www.adph.org/ats/assets...provedTraumaPlan.pdf

It's a long read, but should answer nearly any question you have.

 

If you just want a jist of it you can just read about trauma centers and their levels here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trauma_center

Halfway down they go into the different levels of trauma centers.

ECM is a Level III Trauma Center and Keller does not have a Trauma Center.

 

Much to Alabama's shame there is only 1 American College of Surgeons (ACS) verified Level I Trauma Center in AL, that being UAB in Birmingham.  IMO the ACS verifed is the gold standard.  The others are designated by the State of Alabama and the standards for state designation can vary from state to state.  Given Alabama's propensity for seeking the lowest common denominator I think that is cause for concern, just look at the state EMS regulations.

 

Alabama has 2 state designated Level I Trauma Centers, Huntsville and USA Mobile, and 2 Level I speciality Trauma Centers for peds and occular in the  Birmingham area.

 

Alabama does not have an effective trauma system and is yrs behind many other states in this particular area of medicine.

The system is based upon access to speciality care from the ER in an emergent situation.  It requires those specialities to be available 24 hours a day 7 days per week.  If the specialty is not available at that time, the system gets put on a bypass and the patient is flown directly to the next level system which is closest. In the event of a head injury, if neurosurgery is on bypass, the nearest facility would be HH.  It is a system designed to get the patient to the OR in the quickest fashion without additional transfer.  This is important in the early hours of a trauma ( the golden hours) when it might mean the difference in losing a limb or more brain injury.  This is why a local hospital system with as many specialities as possible needs to be maintained.  It still takes time to fly a patient to HH and unload them, when we need to be able to provide as good of care as possible right here in the area.

But if you're really in bad, bad shape, Vanderbilt Hosptial is 100 miles north of Florence.  Vanderbilt's Emergency Room is absolutely as good as it gets--top rated anywhere. 

 

And, Vanderbilt stables helicopters at the Mount Pleasant Airport 55 miles north of the Shoals.  And, they also will fly down here.

 

Now, if you've been shot with a gun, The Med (University of Tennessee) in Memphis is the most experienced there is in gunshots.  It's also the place to go for premature births--largest and best neonatal center in the U.S.

Vanderbilt is great if you live north of the river.  Also, what do you do if the helo's aren't flying due to weather or .....?  The time it takes a helo to launch, fly to the hosp or field location, package and load the patient then fly to Nashville/Memphis eats up most if not all of the Golden Hour or more. 

Originally Posted by JJ:

Vanderbilt is great if you live north of the river.  Also, what do you do if the helo's aren't flying due to weather or .....?  The time it takes a helo to launch, fly to the hosp or field location, package and load the patient then fly to Nashville/Memphis eats up most if not all of the Golden Hour or more. 

It really depends on the circumstances if you can't be flown out due to weather. Location, type of injury, severity of injury and so on. Most of the time the patient will be transported to ECM, stabilized until a helicopter can fly or stabilized to the point that they can be transported by ground.

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