Analysis: Vast rural areas left out of trauma care loop

The Associated Press

Arizona has seven “Level 1” trauma centers but they’re clustered mostly in the state’s two urban centers, leaving vast rural areas out of the trauma loop — or at least hours from it, a statewide analysis of trauma care concluded.

The analysis found that as many as 10 percent of all trauma deaths in Arizona could be prevented if all the state’s acute-care hospitals — nearly 70 of them — also joined the trauma system, at various levels of trauma care.

As it is, traumatic injury is the leading cause of death for Arizonans younger than 44.

The analysis was done by the American College of Surgeons, the national physicians group that sets standards for trauma care and verifies that trauma centers meet them.

The report says Arizona must develop a “fully functional inclusive” trauma care system to save more lives, citing a “perfect storm” of pressures in Arizona — a booming population, many elderly patients, underserved American Indian tribes, huge numbers of border crossers, as well as the rural issue.

Such a system — with all hospitals coordinated to get injured patients to the proper level of trauma care within the crucial “golden hour,” when immediate care is most likely to save lives — would prevent more than 300 trauma deaths a year.

But state funds will be needed to help dozens of hospitals gear up to become Level 2, 3 and 4 trauma centers — money that Arizona does not have and will not provide in the face of a severe budget shortfall.

In fact, the state’s financial situation is so dire that even the funds now supporting the existing Level 1 trauma centers may be in danger. “Level 1” trauma centers deliver top-quality trauma care for people with life-threatening injuries.