Plan: Raise traffic fines to net $30 million
By Nell Smith
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock)
Copyright 2007 Little Rock Newspapers, Inc.
The state’s Trauma Advisory Council intends to push legislation increasing fines for traffic violations to create a $30 million trauma system, members said Thursday.
Governor-appointed council members now are considering a proposal to raise moving violation fines by $15 and those for driving under the influence by $25.
A trauma system would coordinate the state’s hospitals to ensure that trauma victims are transferred to the hospitals best able to treat them. Under a trauma system, hospitals would be designated as Level 1, 2, 3 or 4 depending on the degree of trauma care they provide.
Arkansas is the only state without a single designated trauma center and one of three states without a functioning trauma system.
Arkansas already has regulations defining the requirements for each level designation. For example, under existing regulations, a Level 1 trauma center - which would provide the highest level of trauma care - must have an anesthesiologist immediately available to a patient coming to the emergency room.
However, because there’s no funding to support the regulations, there’s no incentive for hospitals to become designated.
Under the proposed plan, funding raised by the increased fines would be placed in a fund managed by the state Health Division. The division would develop rules and regulations for distributing the funds.
Although those details would be worked out after any legislation is passed, division officials say the money could be used to supplement Medicaid reimbursement for trauma care and pay for equipment that hospitals and ambulances need.
Health Division officials estimate that one or two hospitals would become certified as Level 1 trauma centers and as many as 10 could become Level 2 centers. They hope that all hospitals in the state eventually would become designated at some level, although they say participation in the system probably would be voluntary - at least initially.
“If we see that only 10 hospitals want to participate, we may want to go back and change something,” Renee Mallory, a Health Division official, said at the Trauma Advisory Council meeting Thursday. “But right now we’re just going to hope that everybody will participate because it’s the right thing to do.” Council members note that research has shown that trauma systems reduce trauma-related death by 10 percent to 30 percent. Speedy treatment also can reduce the amount of permanent disability sustained by traumatic injuries, they say.