![]() ![]() ![]() “Ideally, you want to get the patient to the facility and into the operating room, if that’s what they need, within what’s called the ‘golden hour,’” Deaton said. OPMC has taken the position that an additional trauma center here makes sense and saves lives. But OPMC appealed and eventually reopened. The third option is what happened in 2013 when the first OPMC trauma center was shuttered, based on “deficiencies in emergency department requirements, acute rehabilitative services, psycho-social support systems and quality management,” according to public documents. ![]() The inspection will determine whether OPMC keeps its provisional status, is granted “permanent” status for a standard term of seven years or loses its status altogether and closes again. Not only is the OPMC trauma center at the mercy of the state in terms of whether it will be permitted to operate when a ruling comes down regarding the aforementioned key questions, but it faces a state evaluation in February. The UF Health trauma centers in Jacksonville and Gainesville are both level 1, which means they can accept all kinds of trauma cases. The Orange Park trauma center is level 2, meaning it doesn’t treat children ages 15 and under or people with burn wounds. “The more options in the area, the better. “We feel it best serves the needs of patients in this geographical area to have faster availability and easier access to a trauma center,” said Keri Deaton, director of trauma services at Orange Park Medical Center. “We still strongly believe that more trauma centers do not improve outcomes for the critically injured, they only increase costs for those patients and taxpayers,” said Russ Armistead, chief executive officer of UF Health Jacksonville. Shands UF Health Jacksonville – the only other trauma center in the region, with the next closest one being Shands UF Health Gainesville – has been opposing competition from OPMC in court. It opened a provisional level II trauma center in 2011, but it was shut down by the health department 15 months later before reopening on May 1 of this year. Orange Park Medical Center, which is owned by the Hospital Corporation of America, has been fighting to have a trauma center for five years. However, the health department authorized the opening of an additional trauma center here and in other parts of the state, but that decision is under review.Ī new ruling is expected in a matter of days or weeks. The state had capped the number of trauma centers allowed in each region, with the Jacksonville area allowed to have just one facility. Which hospitals should be allowed to have a trauma center? How should the state divvy up the number of trauma centers in each of its 19 mapped regions? And how many trauma centers should be permitted statewide? The Florida Department of Health, which regulates the number of trauma centers in the state to prevent overlapping of services, has been poking and prodding the issue for years, weighing opinions on a few key questions. On the table is the issue of trauma centers. It is a frustrating purgatory that could end tomorrow or drag out a while longer. They are waiting for answers, waiting to hear their names called, waiting for a diagnosis and results. ORANGE PARK – Hospitals throughout Florida are stuck in their own sort of crowded waiting room. ![]()
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