UMC President Greg Pivirotto said UMC would pursue public funding to allow it to re-open an enhanced Level 1 trauma center capable of serving all of Southern Arizona in 24 to 36 months.
UMC's decision comes two weeks after Tucson Medical Center announced that financial losses will force it to close its Level 1 trauma center at the end of the year unless immediate stop-gap funding is found. TMC's trauma center closure would have left University Medical Center as the region's only Level 1 trauma center in 2002.
TMC and UMC have operated a nationally recognized joint Level 1 trauma program for 16 years. TMC is losing $5 million a year and UMC is losing approximately $1.1 million on trauma care. Together, they treat more than 3,000 victims of motor vehicle accidents, gunshots, stab wounds, falls and other major trauma each year. Tucson's Davis-Monthan Air Force Base and surrounding counties rely on the hospitals for trauma care.
"We deeply regret that this joint trauma program, which has served Tucson and Southern Arizona so well for so many years, is coming to an end. But it's become very clear in our discussions with our staff and physicians that UMC would be quickly overwhelmed if it had to carry the entire trauma burden by itself," Mr. Pivirotto said. "This would jeopardize our ability to meet other essential responsibilities, such as heart care, cancer surgery, organ transplants, etc.
"We are committed to trauma services over the long term. In the short term, however, it's our hope that resources will be found to keep Tucson Medical Center's Level 1 trauma center open, or that another hospital will step forward to share Level 1 trauma services with UMC in 2002," he said.
UMC's trauma and emergency services already are overwhelmed, said Harvey Meislin, M.D., interim head of the Department of Emergency Services at the UA College of Medicine. The hospital's emergency department and trauma center were on "divert" approximately one day out of three last year when there were not enough staff or beds to care for further patients.
UMC's emergency facilities, built to handle 50,000 patient visits a year, will treat 65,000 patients this year, he said.
A chronic nursing shortage, and the recent departure of several trauma surgeons to better-funded programs out of state, have exacerbated Tucson's trauma woes, Dr. Meislin said.
"UMC is the state's primary teaching and research hospital, as well as a national leader in heart care, cancer, neurosurgery and a host of other specialties. All these programs would be compromised if UMC had to divert its limited resources to trauma at this time," said Raymond Woosley, M.D., Ph.D., the new vice president for the University of Arizona Health Sciences Center, of which UMC is part.
"It is unfortunate that while the rest of the nation is working to enhance disaster preparedness, Tucson is being forced to dismantle its trauma system," Dr. Woosley added. "Nonetheless, we are committed to securing partners to share in meeting the needs of the community, or if necessary, we will begin to develop the required resources and infrastructure to be the single provider of trauma care."
UMC and TMC leaders have been meeting with city, county and state leaders for several months to find a solution to Tucson's trauma collapse. UMC officials met with Mayor Bob Walkup as recently as this morning. "The mayor is very concerned and will be pulling together major stakeholders to discuss where we go from here," Mr. Pivirotto said.
Back