All Hospitals are Not Equal: Level I Trauma Centers
If I were in a serious accident in Flagler county, which ER would I go to for treatment? Halifax Hospital without a doubt. Residents in Orlando, Gainesville, and Jacksonville have access to state certified Level One trauma centers. As good as Halifax Hospital in Daytona is, it is classified as a Level II trauma center. There are only 7 Level I trauma centers in Florida, and 2 of them are in Gainesville. There is no Level II trauma center in Flagler County.
There is a difference between care at a Level I and II. In Level I a General Surgeon is always present to help immediately plus comprehensive long term care being available in the Level I hospital. Plus, if you or a loved one is involved in a serious trauma, jeopardizing your spinal cord for example, the quicker care might mean the difference between being able to use your arms and legs again, or being a paraplegic or quadriplegic for the rest of your life. In terms of care, Level I trauma centers offer quicker and more comprehensive care because they have qualified expert staffing "On Call and immediately available at all times." Level I Trauma centers must have burn units or transfer agreements with burn units set up.
The Trauma website says that Level II centers don't have the comprehensive ability for long term care and many of their patients end up being transferred. A recent study of Traumatic Spinal Cord Injuries (TSCI) concluded that :
"Trauma center care is associated with reduced paralysis after TSCI, possibly because of greater use of spinal surgery. National guidelines to triage all such patients to trauma centers are followed little more than half the time."
In Florida in 2002 more than 29,000 patients were treated at Florida trauma centers.
