Of those 200, only a small percentage were for trauma incidents. During the past year, there were 325 calls for Medflight to the Cape, 200 of which were completed. "There's only one way on and one way off."Ī flight from the Cape can generally run up to $10,000, said Suzanne Wedel, chief executive officer of Boston MedFlight. "Technically the Cape is an island connected by bridges," Faunce said. Getting patients to a trauma center can be challenging due to the patient's condition, weather and traffic. The Cape is a special location, Faunce said. Those levels have CAT scans on the premises, have surgeons 15 to 20 minutes away and can cover all the specialties the difference between Levels 1 and 2 is the educational component, including staff who publish significant research, according to Conn.Īnd becoming a Level 1 costs money: keeping up with standards can cost millions of dollars a year.īut the guidelines don't imply that the Cape Cod or Falmouth hospitals are bad, according to Bill Flynn, director of the Cape and Islands Emergency Medical Services System, Inc., the liaison between emergency responders and medical staff. Those patients are now likely to be taken to trauma centers in Boston or Rhode Island because the local hospitals are not what the state designates as Level 1 or Level 2 trauma centers. The chance for recovery and rate of survival is 25 percent higher, according to Cape Cod Online, when a patient is treated at a trauma center, and state guidelines were adjusted to provide what emergency responders and medical professionals say is the best possible care for Cape Cod's most severely injured patients. "You can't take that into a community hospital at 2 a.m." "The first patient I managed was unconscious, both lungs were collapsed, all the ribs on one side were broken, a ruptured spleen - and a fractured pelvis," Conn told Cape Cod Online. Trauma centers have a number of advantages over smaller facilities, said Alasdair Conn, chief of emergency services at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, including availability of staff, screening equipment, and academic connections. "We're still feeling out what the impact will be." "It's a case-by-case basis for us," said EMS Officer Mike Medeiros of the Hyannis Fire Department. guidelines instruct responders to take patients with major injuries to state-designated trauma centers farther away from the scene instead of nearby hospitals.Īny patient could be taken directly to a trauma center if deemed necessary by the paramedics and the medical control physician at Cape Cod Hospital, according to David Faunce, executive director of the Southeastern Massachusetts Emergency Medical Services Council, according to Cape Cod Online.
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