Trauma center is the only hospital in Wyoming with a Level II designation.
By Jennifer Frazer
Wyoming Tribune-Eagle (Cheyenne)
Copyright 2007 Cheyenne Newspapers, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — The American College of Surgeons has upgraded Cheyenne Regional Medical Center’s Trauma Center to Level II, the highest ranking possible for non-research hospitals.
It also makes the hospital the only one in Wyoming with such a designation.
And the effort the hospital put into achieving that status has already saved lives, said Terry Dimon, director of trauma and regional services at CRMC.
“I can think of at least three miracle people in the last year that I truly believe the reason they’re alive today is the changes we made,” she said.
Reviewers from the American College of Surgeons visited the hospital’s trauma center last year and scrutinized physician response times, outcomes, recovery, complications and rehabilitation.
Trauma staff also discuss with patients how their injury could have been prevented, and reviewers checked that too.
Level II is the “gold standard” for trauma care, Dimon said. Level I trauma centers, the only higher classification, are typically located at hospitals attached to medical schools. They must have research capabilities and physicians in-house around the clock.
At a Level II center, trauma physicians must have a 15-minute response time and meet other stringent standards.
There also are Level III and IV trauma centers.
Dimon said the elevation reflects the hospital’s dedication to doing better for patients and being the best in the region.
“We didn’t have to do this,” she said. “We elected to do this. We could have stayed a regional center and provided good care.”
The designation will come up for review again in four years, she said.
The Heart Center at CRMC also recently had good news. This past week, the American College of Cardiology informed the center that it had become a “leading hospital” in the nation in the percentage of patients who get a balloon angioplasty within 90 minutes of a heart attack, the current guideline.
The statistic is one of 10 performance measures the college grades hospitals on.
In the most recent data for the 12 months that ended in September 2006, the hospital ranked in the top eighth percentile of the 560 hospitals in the country that report their heart patient data to the American College of Cardiology.
Nationally, about one-third of patients admitted to hospitals get them in 90 minutes. Right now, 83 percent of patients at CRMC do.
CRMC moved up to eighth from the 11th percentile in the report three months prior, but the small change was enough to earn the “leading hospital” designation.
It had previously earned that classification in two other measures related to circulatory complications after heart attack treatment, making it a leading hospital in three out of the 10 measures.
In one of the measures, related to complications of blood vessels in the legs after a heart catheterization or angioplasty, the hospital ranks first in the nation, and did so last year as well.
Doctors perform heart catheterizations to check the blood vessels for blockages, and perform angioplasties to clear them.
Dr. Timothy Gardner, medical director of the Heart Center at CRMC, credited everyone from ambulance drivers to lab technicians for the results.
“I just wanted to pat everyone who is involved on the back,” he said.