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| Blake Medical Center |
BRADENTON – In serious situations, minutes can mean the difference between life and death for patients with severe injuries. But before November 13, no trauma center was located within Manatee, Sarasota or Desoto counties. Patients involved in serious motor vehicle accidents, falls and assaults were airlifted to St. Petersburg or Tampa. Hardships were not only placed on the victims, but also their families, who had to travel great distances to visit an injured, loved one.
”Trauma is non-discriminate and encompasses all races and economical classes,“ said Dan Friedrich, CEO of Blake Medical Center. "The sooner you get to a trauma center, the better your chance of surviving. Prior to us opening these patients would have been taken to another county, miles away.“
Anyone who has driven down 59th Street has probably noticed the $13.5-million-dollar renovation, taking place at Blake Medical Center. In addition to an exterior makeover, the hospital has finally opened a much-anticipated trauma unit. After approximately three months of operation, it has provided medical emergency services to over 130 patients and educated over 150 employees about the specialized resources required for those in the greatest need.
”We now have two trauma bays, where we can resuscitate four people at a time,“ said Dan Friedrich, CEO of Blake Medical Center. ”One day we eight trauma patients, but the average is about two per day.“
Despite the fact that the Center of Disease Control and Prevention places trauma, (serious unintentional injuries, suicide and homicide), as the leading cause of death among people ages 1-44, the number of trauma centers has actually decreased. A study conducted by the medical journal Health Affairs showed that 69 million people had to travel farther to get to a trauma centers in 2007 than in 2001. The Manatee County area was ranked as having the fifth highest mortality rate in the state for traumatic brain injury, seventh for falls and eighth for motor vehicle injuries, according to the March 2008 Florida trauma research report.
”I can think of one situation where if you had been opened before, a mom might have been saved,“ Councilwoman Marianne Barnebey confessed to Friedrich at a city council workshop on Wednesday.
The $2.5-million involved in constructing the trauma department included recruiting, developing trauma protocols, construction planning, and staff training. The unit is connected with four other HCA Hospitals in Florida that are partnered with USF Health, a division of the University of South Florida to create a statewide trauma network to advance the study.
”This is the most comprehensive clinical review that I have seen in 25 years,“ said Friedrich. ”Once a month it gets evaluated. The state looks at trends – it’s just a great process.“
Blake received trauma center verification by meeting specific criteria established by the American College of Surgeons, and incorporating state law provisions. The next step is a site review process.
”We spent three years putting this together,“ said Fredrick. ”We are in a phase called the Ôdetailed review,’ sometime between May and January, the onsite review will be conducted.“
The center functions as a Level II trauma center. It provides 24-hour availability of all essential specialties, personnel, and equipment. The staff included four critical care workers, a trauma director, six surgeons, an anesthesiologist, eleven specialists and a neurosurgeon. Over 100 employees have also been specially trained for contact with with a trauma patient.
”Without it, you can’t touch a trauma patients,“ said Friedrich. ”Trauma is like a lightning bulb, anything that goes wrong could explode into pieces.“
To efficiently serve patients, Blake has added an additional helicopter-landing pad in addition to the helipad that was there before. This way, a victim could be safely delivered to Blake without having to move the center’s parked helicopter.
Blake Medical Center is also receiving some architectural renovations. According to Friedrich, what started as a window replacement project has morphed into a construction redesign.
”We are trying to reinforce the integrity of the building, but took the liberty of putting architectural details into it as well,“ he said.
The project is a 30-month-long undertaking and engineers are about 8 months into it. One popular addition is an electronic billboard that displays the wait time from the moment a patient enters until they see a doctor.
”To be mentally prepared for the wait, and are reassured you won’t be waiting to see a doctor – people like it,“ said Friedrich. ”But when it gets to be over 30 minutes, I start getting phone calls.“
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