3 Reasons To Improve the Trauma Center at Your Hospital.

Trauma centers in hospitals are not considered profitable due to the fact that they often serve un- or under-insured patients. Because of this, trauma centers are too often shuttered in high-need areas of a city or town. Yet data shows that critically injured patients who receive care at a trauma center have better outcomes than those who are treated at a non-trauma center.

If the trauma center at your hospital is in danger of closure, here are three reasons to invest in its improvement.

1. Improved Care

Trauma centers need to have access to adequate resources in order to provide top quality care. When a trauma center is underfunded, patients suffer. Every aspect of a trauma center matters. A poorly maintained building matters for patient health, but also impacts the morale of the staff who work there. Staff who feel unappreciated often do not provide the best quality care. Correcting deficiencies in building structure, cleanliness, staffing, leadership, and resourcing will lead to improved patient care. For some patients, care doesn’t stop once they go home either. With the help of at home medical devices and telemetry registered nurses, the patients can continue to receive the best care and monitoring while they reach the last stages of recovery.

2. Prevent Closures

When a trauma center is considered unprofitable, it is often located in a high-need urban or rural area. Urban centers are densely populated, increasing the demand for services. Rural centers are smaller and serve huge geographic areas. Without trauma centers, people must travel further to find affordable help. Under performing trauma units can be transformed with the help of trauma center development experts who can work with the overwhelmed leadership team to make a plan for how to improve.

3. Train the Future

Trauma centers provide training ground for future doctors and nurses. The variety of cases that come through the door gives students the opportunity to gain diverse experience. It is important that their training experiences are positive. A trauma center that is not valued will show future medical professionals where they will not be supported, making them less likely to choose to work in these high-need environments.

Trauma centers are needed to save lives. A well-respected trauma center is a safety net for many high need communities, so pouring resources into them is essential.