UVRMC becomes a certified Level II trauma center

It made little difference, that day 10 years ago, that Mary Ann Young was Utah Valley Regional Medical Center's operations officer or that she sat on the hospital's executive board.

There had still been an accident. Her son was still dying. The on-call surgeon still wasn't answering the phone.

"I was frantic," said the mother, recalling her feelings as she watched her now-28-year-old son writhe in pain. "For whatever reason, our system was failing."

Young's first thought, as she took it all in, was for her child's welfare, she said. Her second, "Utah Valley Regional Medical Center needs to become a certified Level II trauma center."

Monday, Young's dream for the medical center became reality.

UVRMC is now the only Level II trauma center south of Salt Lake City. It is the third hospital, after McKay-Dee Medical Center and Ogden Regional Medical Center, to complete the American College of Surgeons' certification. The University of Utah, Intermountain Medical Center and Primary Children's Medical Center are all Level I trauma centers.

To earn the designation, UVRMC remodeled the emergency room and acquired its own Life Flight helicopter. The hospital's trauma team, including general surgeons, orthopedic surgeons and neurosurgeons, all had to agree to be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

"Time is of the essence when you are dealing with a trauma patient," said Dr. Craig Cook, medical director of trauma services at UVRMC, at a press conference Monday. "Saving that time requires a major sacrifice on the caregiver's part."

It's not just the emergency room doctors who mobilize when UVRMC gets notice that a trauma patient is en route to the hospital, however.

Respiratory, X-ray, ultrasound and intensive care nurses, among others, are all ready to go when the patient comes in the door.

A general surgeon is assigned to orchestrate the different facets of the patient's care, Cook said.

"Continuity of care is probably the most important part of caring for a patient who has multiple injuries," he said. "If you have a patient with 12 or 15 different injuries, it's easy to see why that patient might get lost between the plastic surgeon and the trauma surgeon."

For Evalynn Bounous, who spent two months in UVRMC's trauma center after a head-on car crash last year, seeing the same doctors every day was comforting.

"As confused and as hurt as I was, I could tell they really cared about me," said the Brigham Young University student, who suffered multiple injuries to her abdomen. "I always felt safe."

Since 1997, when UVRMC started working to earn certification, the trauma team has saved 95 patients who were expected to die because of the severity of their injuries. Patients who are treated at a Level II trauma center have a 25 percent better chance of survival than those who are treated at a noncertified hospital, said Bob Jex, of the Utah State Department of Health.

Bounous' father, Barry, certainly attributes his daughter's full recovery to UVRMC's streamlined trauma center.

"I got my daughter back," he said. "You have my undying gratitude for that."

E-mail: estuart@desnews.com