Comparing Chicago and Cleveland trauma centers

Cleveland, OH has a similar environment to that of Chicago. Both cities are plagued by frequent gun violence. MetroHealth Hospital in Cleveland Ohio has a Level I adult trauma center. It serves nearly 3,000 cases of trauma yearly. It is the only of its kind in the area. There are 2 supplementary Level II trauma centers at hospitals nearby. The founders of the trauma center invited others nearby hospitals to be a part of the trauma network. It was arranged so that rather than patients being taken to the geographically nearest hospital, they would be taken to the hospital that could serve their level of trauma. The Metro Life Flight Company provides airlifting services for the network. MetroHealth Hospital and the Cleveland Clinic each contributed $300,000 to the center’s founding. 

One article praises MetroHealth saying, “A four-year study of 30,000 trauma patients before and after the regionalization of trauma care revealed NOTS (Northern Ohio Trauma Centers) saved more than 100 lives since its creation” (Rodak). The mortality rates in Cleveland dropped 53% after the Level I trauma center made its debut in 2010.

If the University of Chicago were to extend the age range of the existing trauma center, one would think Chicago would reap similar benefits.

Citizens are concerned, and with good reason! Moore reports, “Patients living on the Southeast Side face longer ambulance run times than other residents in the city. Specifically, they have to travel an average of 50 percent longer to get from the scene of an emergency to a trauma center. More than half of the trauma-related ambulance runs that originate in that part of town exceed 20 minutes, which is considered a professional standard within the city. Those neighborhoods include Hyde Park, Woodlawn, Pullman, South Shore and the Southeast Side”.

One recent case in particular seems to have caught the public eye. Youth activist Damian Turner was shot and killed across the street from U of C but died during transport to Northwestern Memorial Hospital. His life is one of many that could have been saved by the existence of a South Side Trauma Center.

Ramchandani reports, “No South Side residents live within five miles of the four Chicago Level 1 trauma centers. From 61st and Cottage Grove, where Damian was shot, Advocate Illinois Masonic is 13 miles away, John H. Stroger Hospital is about 10 miles away, Mount Sinai on the West Side is about 11 miles away, and Northwestern is 10. Some South Side trauma victims are taken to Advocate Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, which is 11 miles southwest of this particular intersection.” For urban gunshot bleeding, hemorrhage is the leading cause of death. One can infer that getting care sooner would stop the bleeding faster and lower mortality rates.

Even with pressure from the public, the University of Chicago is not planning to offer an adult trauma center. The University expresses discontent in being the local scapegoat hospital, saying “A 537-bed facility, cannot by itself solve all the problems of an area that has lost more than 2,000 hospital beds in recent decades.”

Perhaps if, as in Cleveland, several Chicagoland hospitals could come together to fund one trauma center. Substantial evidence indicates that lives would be saved- the hospital network must decide if it is worth the cost.