Will budget woes keep you from getting emergency trauma care?

The bad economy strikes again, this time one of our local hospitals is affected.  A local trauma center is having budget problems, problems that could mean compromised care for you and your family if you are injured in an accident.

Relatively simple accidents or illnesses can be treated at a regular emergency room, but severe injuries like brain damage or life-threatening car accident injuries mean you’ll need to be treated at a trauma center – preferably one that is close by.

Norfolk and Virginia Beach residents are fortunate to have a Level I trauma center right in Norfolk.  Residents of the greater Peninsula are similarly fortunate: there is a Level II trauma center in midtown Newport News, but that could change if budget problems force the Riverside Regional Medical Center to close the center.

Without Riverside’s Level II trauma center, injured victims in Newport News and Hampton could be forced to endure a time-consuming – and expensive – helicopter trip to Norfolk for treatment.

Riverside is having funding problems partially due to the way that Virginia allocates money for trauma centers.  Since lawmakers make the assumption that most trauma centers are needed to treat auto accident victims, trauma funding comes from DUI penalties.  Hospitals are reimbursed by the state according to how many car accident victims they treat.

For centers like Riverside, only about 10 percent of their costs are covered by these state funds.  The rest of the money – needed to treat other trauma victims, especially victims of violent crimes – is hard to come by.

Let’s hope the General Assembly is listening and can come up with a better way to fund our trauma centers before it is too late.