State and Regional News

MONTGOMERY — East Alabama hospitals could soon opt into a first-of-its-kind statewide trauma system, state public health officials said Monday.

The system, which the state's top health officer, Dr. Don Williamson, said would cost about $40 million, would electronically link emergency medical personnel, hospital departments and 911 departments to speed response times to trauma events across the state.

If it works, the system could greatly reduce the number of trauma patients who end up at a hospital that can't treat them, Williamson said.

"Even though 90 percent of all injuries are minor and can be treated at the local hospital, the remaining 10 percent who have life-threatening injuries require quick, specialized care in a trauma center," Williamson said during the first meeting of the statewide trauma advisory council charged with establishing and overseeing the system.

The statewide system would be modeled after one that has been used in Birmingham for the last 11 years, and would establish a centralized trauma communications center.

Hospitals and emergency personnel would be linked into the system. In case of a traumatic event, they would have access to information on what resources a hospital does or doesn't have on hand.

Between 1996 and 2005, the Birmingham system saw more than 23,000 trauma patients and saw a 12 percent drop in its trauma-related death rate. The rest of the state saw no improvement.

Dr. John Campbell, EMS director for the Alabama Department of Public Health, said 80 percent of Alabama's trauma cases are caused by motor-vehicle crashes. The state has the fourth-highest rate per capita in the nation for highway trauma deaths.

"Traumas are time-dependent," Campbell said. "We know if we get people to the right hospital, with the right response, in the right amount of time, we can save them."

Campbell said the fact that so many of Alabama's roadways are in rural communities, while many of the state's physicians and hospitals capable of dealing with trauma situations are in bigger cities has a lot to do with the high death rates.

"Oftentimes rural hospitals don't have the higher-trained physicians who have the experience to deal with trauma," said the former Clay County physician. "The hospitals don't have the resources to arrange transfers, and it can take hours."

That's time that most trauma patients — particularly those with multiple injuries — don't have, he said.

Williamson said no hospital will be forced to participate in the statewide trauma system, but the system still will benefit non-participating hospitals.

"This system will route trauma patients to the right hospital the first time, and keep them from ending up at a hospital that doesn't have the resources to treat them," he said.

Williamson said it will be important in the next 18 months — the timeline to get the system established — to have the support of local hospitals and physicians.

If the council is successful, the state will make history, he said.

"Alabama will be the only state in the U.S. that can monitor hospital resources all over the state," Williamson said.

"This is the biggest thing we've done since ALLKids, and it will save more lives than ALLKids."

Clay County Hospital Administrator Linda Jordan declined to be interviewed, but said she supports the establishment of a statewide trauma system.

Attempts to reach administrators at Regional Medical Center and Stringfellow Memorial Hospital on Monday were unsuccessful.