Letter from the president: Trauma designation process to benefit community

When I first joined Texas Health Harris Methodist Hurst-Euless-Bedford as President in 2007, I was immediately impressed with how much the hospital offers its local communities. It didn’t take long for me to notice that the hospital’s combined strengths could provided us with a unique opportunity — an opportunity to offer trauma services.

No one wants to imagine that they’ll have an accident that is life-threatening, nor do they worry which hospital would care for them if they do.  As health care providers, it’s our job to think of all the possibilities.

Texas Health HEB has always had an emergency room to handle accidents and other health emergencies. In the recent years we have worked diligently to increase our ability to treat the number of emergencies we see on a daily basis. We haven’t just been talking about it; we have worked at it by investing numerous work hours and even capital investments to put systems and equipment in place.

It’s been paying off…

How?  Texas Health HEB has already achieved designation as a Primary Stroke Center by The Joint Commission and we are recognized as a Cycle III Chest Pain Center by the Society of Chest Pain Centers.

But we have bigger aspirations.

The Texas Health HEB Board of Trustees recently approved a resolution enabling the hospital to seek Level III Trauma Facility Designation. We are the first hospital in Northeast Tarrant County to invest in this process and devote the time to achieve such trauma designation.

What does this mean to you? It means that the closest hospital to you will be able to take higher level emergency patients. As you can imagine, in any emergency situation, just a few minutes of travel time can make a big difference in treatment outcomes. Transporting patients to a closer hospital means EMS providers will be able to get back on the road saving lives faster.

I spend a fair amount of time on 820 and 183 myself, and believe me, I know all too well the congestion that frequently clogs the highways. Sure, ambulances can go around traffic when it’s bumper-to-bumper, but it slows them down. That’s another reason we decided to seek trauma designation.

Dr. Poettcker

We have put into place several crucial trauma-related components to treat falls, motor vehicle accidents and other “trauma” situations. These steps included insuring that we have trauma and orthopedic surgeons on call 24/7; specially trained emergency medicine physicians on the medical staff, and hiring a trauma coordinator.

Having been on the medical staff for more than two decades as a general surgeon, Dr. James Poettcker is well-versed in the emergency needs of the community and will help drive this process internally.  That’s why we have named Dr. Poettcker as Trauma Medical Director.

You will also be seeing more community education and events as we start spreading the word about this exciting anticipated designation.

In the end, all of these steps really come down to Texas Health HEB living the Mission of improving the health of the people in the communities we serve each day.

Deborah Paganelli, FACHE
President
Texas Health HEB