Cartersville Medical seeks Level II status
The hospital’s ER and ICU expand in recent years as part of its trauma upgrade.
The Cartersville Medical Center has started the two- to three-year process of upgrading to the designation of a Level II trauma center, according to Jan Tidwell, assistant chief nursing officer.
Tidwell, who also serves as the EMS liaison and ethics and compliance officer at the hospital, commented on the push to advance their trauma center status to the Adairsville Council of the Cartersville-Bartow County Chamber of Commerce on Thursday.
CMC is a sister hospital to Redmond Regional Medical Center in the Hospital Corporation of American system.
A Level II trauma center requires immediate 24-hour coverage by general surgeons, as well as coverage by specialists in orthopedic surgery, neurosurgery, anesthesiology, emergency medicine, radiology and critical care.
“The Level II trauma designation is something we’re working on just about every day. Getting to Level II is probably going to change the face of the hospital,” Tidwell said.
The hospital has already recruited a new
trauma surgeon who will be joining the staff at CMC this summer, she added.
Tidwell reported that admissions to the hospital’s ER topped 62,000 in 2016, and ER visits accounted for approximately 80 percent of admissions to the hospital.
“The county just keeps growing,” she said.
CMC has expanded its ER to 32 beds from 18 and is working to grow by another 13 beds. The ICU has also been expanded recently to 21 beds from 14.
She said the hospital
would have to upgrade its capacity to provide 24hour general surgery staffing and cardiothoracic and neurological surgical services.
The hospital also would need to develop a helipad for airborne transport of patients.
Brad Cothran, the public information officer for Bartow EMS, said getting the Level II trauma designation also would
benefit their EMS. Anytime ambulances have to carry a trauma patient out of county, he said, they lose its service for however long it takes to drop them off and return.
“We had 24 patients (in 2016) brought to Floyd (Medical Center) by Bartow EMS who would have been designated as trauma patients,” said Floyd Medical Center spokesman Dan Bevels.