By Annika Merrilees
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
BRIDGETON, Mo. — SSM Health is reducing trauma services at DePaul Hospital in Bridgeton, leaving north St. Louis County without a designated hospital to treat urgent, severe injuries like those from gunshots, stabbings or car crashes.
The move — which the health system attributed to low volumes of trauma patients — will force emergency services to take such patients additional minutes away to other hospitals.
“Up in North County, that is our closest facility to take significant, traumatic injuries,” said Mark Flauter, chief medical officer for the Florissant Valley Fire Protection District. “It leaves a significant hole in the North County area, for care of trauma patients.”
The Florissant Valley Fire Protection District received about 11,500 EMS calls last year. Of those, 649 were patients with traumatic injuries who were taken to DePaul Hospital.
SSM Health said it will work closely with local emergency medical service providers to help with the transition. DePaul Hospital has Level I designations for treating strokes and heart attacks, and those services will not change.
“Trauma care is a highly-specialized service — and medical best practice shows we must treat a minimum number of patients to maintain the level of experience, training and equipment a trauma program requires,” the DePaul Hospital statement read. “Yet, only a very small percentage of individuals treated in our emergency room each year require trauma services.”
SSM said the change, discontinuing its designation as a Level II trauma center, will take effect Sept. 10. Level II trauma centers are required to have immediate access to general surgeons.
It is possible that DePaul could continue to treat some lower-level trauma patients, if the hospital pursues the less specialized Level III trauma center designation. SSM’s statement did not specify, and officials didn’t respond to questions about that possibility by deadline.
DePaul’s emergency room will remain open.
Multiple area EMS providers said they were briefed by SSM representatives about the change earlier in the week, and expect that in the future, in some cases they may have to transport patients as many as 20 minutes farther away to trauma hospitals after vehicle crashes, gunshot injuries or stabbings.
“I was disappointed,” said John Romeo, deputy chief medical officer for the St. Charles County Ambulance District “There were lots of questions, and concern and frustration... Having to go a little bit farther could definitely make a difference.”
Kevin Stuhlman, assistant chief of the Pattonville Fire Protection District, said his district transports most of its patients to DePaul Hospital. “We’re extremely disappointed that this decision was made,” he said. “We feel it’s a disservice to the community we serve.”
Pattonville Fire Protection District paramedics there are often responding to vehicle crashes: Between Interstates 70 and 270, Page Avenue and the Maryland Heights Expressway, the area is full of busy roads with high speed limits. Stuhlman said his district also responds to workplace accidents at the warehouses and manufacturers in Earth City.
SSM ended its trauma center designation three years ago at St. Joseph Hospital in St. Charles. St. Joseph Hospital in Lake Saint Louis is still a Level III trauma center.
Ambulances do, in some cases, already have to take patients south to BJC HealthCare Barnes-Jewish Hospital, SSM Health St. Louis University Hospital, and Mercy Hospital St. Louis. Those hospitals are all Level I trauma centers, according to a state directory, and handle the most specialized cases. Pediatric trauma patients are typically taken to SSM’s Cardinal Glennon Hospital and BJC’s St. Louis Children’s Hospital.
(c)2023 the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Visit the St. Louis Post-Dispatch at www.stltoday.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.