What does it mean to be a Level 1 pediatric trauma center?
It means we meet all the requirements of [being] an adult trauma center plus 225 more requirements designed to meet the needs of pediatrics patients, ages 14 and younger. All trauma surgeons must be pediatric surgeons. You have to have a pediatric anesthesiologist in house 24/7. All other pediatric specialists on staff must be available within a 30-minute call time. Because of the shortage of physicians in Arizona, we had to recruit additional staff to give us the manpower to do all of this. We started down this process three and a half years ago. Dave Bank [director of emergency services] had a passion for this [effort]. The number one cause of death in children is trauma. If youre going to be a children’s hospital, you have to be able to deal with all [trauma] issues. What does this designation mean for families and the community? Research has shown that outcomes for children treated in pediatric [trauma] centers are significantly better than for those treated in adult centers. If ch
