The University of Chicago Medicine has announced an opening date for Hyde Park trauma center on the South Side of Chicago, an area which has lacked adult trauma care for more than 25 years. UChicago plans to open this Level 1 adult trauma center on May 1, 2018.
The university is currently working on a $270 million campus expansion that includes an expansion of facilities for more inpatient beds, a cancer institute, and an expanded emergency department. The Level 1 adult trauma center is part of the new expanded emergency department, which is expected to cut travel time to surgery by 50 percent. The facility will be 29,017-square-feet, which is 76 percent larger than the current emergency department on the Hyde Park campus.
The need for an adult trauma center at the university came from an excessive number of South Side patient deaths. Many victims of South Side gun violence die en route to the nearest trauma center, which is on the North Side of Chicago at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. This new location will be key to helping adult victims of gun violence and other traumas, who would otherwise have to travel many more miles to seek emergency care.
Selwyn O. Rogers, Jr., MD, MPH, FACS, formerly chief medical officer, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, will lead the development of the adult trauma center. Dr. Rogers, a public health expert and chief, is focused on specifically addressing the healthcare needs of the underserved communities in the area. He is currently building an interdisciplinary team of specialists to treat patients suffering from life-threatening trauma. “We have to recruit trauma faculty who will be key leaders, but really adequate staffing is about teams and identifying all the current gaps of where we are now and where we need to be, an American College of Surgeons [ACS]-verified trauma center,” Dr. Rogers said. “Even after we open next year, we know we’re going to be on a continuous quality improvement journey, and we will embrace that and continue to work toward a culture of social justice and equality.”
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Photo: UChicago trauma center. Digital Image. Chicago Sun Times. 15 September 2016. Web. 14 June 2017. <Chicago.suntimes.com>