FREMONT — There's a brand new medical facility within the East Bay for individuals who have fallen seriously, been maimed, injured in a automobile accident or otherwise need emergency take care of serious injuries.
Until now, southern Alameda County has never had its own trauma center. People with life-threatening injuries, where every minute could mean the difference between life and death, needed to travel miles to centers in San Jose, Palo Alto or Castro Valley.
But starting July 1, Fremont and the Tri-Valley, considered one of the region's fastest-growing areas, have a much closer option for all seriously injured people — a Level II trauma center at Washington Hospital in Fremont.
Dr. Chet Morrison, the hospital's trauma medicine director, recently met with the Bay Area News Group. The interview has been edited for clarity and space.
Q: On average, what number of patients does the trauma center see per night?
A: It's not unusual for us to have six or seven patients inside 24 hours. If we multiply that by a 12 months, we estimate that we will serve no less than around 1,500 people per 12 months. And then while you add within the individuals who are available with injuries that aren't activated, but they fall, something hurts, they are available, they arrive to the emergency room, we found that they broke a bone and broke their head have injured… it could probably be around 2,000 patients per 12 months. This is roughly such as what level II trauma centers do overall. The large cities, akin to central San Francisco, New York or Detroit, would do higher. I trained at a spot right in downtown Baltimore, and about 3,500 people a 12 months did that.
Q: What did you learn there?
Well, while you suffer shock trauma, you mainly learn a really targeted, detailed, very comprehensive strategy to take care of an entire bunch of injured patients. When you’re there, you could have accomplished your training and have already accomplished your residency. You know the right way to be a physician, the right way to be a surgeon. But there are numerous individuals who have every kind of injuries. So they’re trained in three things: coping with individual injuries; Managing a busy service so you could have a variety of patients with different injuries; And the opposite thing you're trained to do is be a tutorial. In other words, do your research and check out to advance the sector and learn the right way to have a look at your data and make recommendations. And back to what we do here, you furthermore mght find out about trauma prevention and outreach. It's the one job I can consider where we're always occupied with the right way to get out of the business.
Q: Can you tell me more concerning the sorts of cases you handle within the two trauma units at Washington Hospital?
A: The most immediate are collisions with motorized vehicles and motorcycles. And despite all of the advances in road safety, there are still numerous them. We cope with falls. Younger people fall from great heights. Elderly individuals with falls from the bottom. Occasionally we cope with assaults and stabbings, and a few people got here here with gunshot wounds.
Q: What concerning the electric scooters?
A: It's interesting that you just mention that. In fact, there are some individuals who have really injured themselves on these scooters because of the best way the electrical motor works. They have real torque and acceleration, and we’re experiencing a trauma almost much like that of motorcycles and other things that really speed up much faster than people think. You don't need to hit the bottom at a really high speed to essentially hurt yourself. So we actually see it. In fact, I used to be at a forum of trauma surgeons across the country and we’re all noticing that these electric scooters are on the rise. I'm sufficiently old to recollect when ATVs became popular and we saw numerous ATV injuries.
Q: I mean, most of them don't wear helmets, right?
A: That's the opposite problem. Since California law requires motorcycle helmets, we recommend bicycle helmets. But wearing a helmet for an electrical scooter hasn't really entered anyone's consciousness or legal considerations yet. Even if Dr. Morrison, the trauma surgeon, says, “Wear a helmet whenever possible because you only have one head.”
Q: In what extreme cases would this trauma center have to send a patient elsewhere?
One of them is for things like burns. We will not be a burn center, in order that they need to go to the burn center. And there are a couple of burn centers that we go to. If you suffer a burn and show up at a burn center, they’ve a system and know what to do. So that they’ll handle you. Second, we will not be a pediatric trauma center for youngsters; We don't have a pediatric intensive care unit. But we have now a transfer agreement with UCSF Benioff in Oakland so we will treat injured kids here. We can stabilize them and in the event that they have any injuries they can be transferred there. These are the 2 broad categories of patients. Furthermore, we will do most things here. Every every now and then someone needs very advanced specialized treatment, akin to advanced facial reconstruction, after which may go some other place. A Level II trauma center ought to be expected to handle most things that come through the door. But the goal with trauma is to get people back into society. It's not nearly saving someone's life, although that’s crucial thing.
Q: Is the subsequent level of a trauma center that may treat burn victims, for instance, Level I or Level III?
A: Level I is the very best level trauma center. The difference is that in larger urban areas, a Level I trauma center tends to be affiliated with a university. What they’ve that we don't have is their teaching facilities. So you could have residents. And to realize Level I studies, constant presence of seniors is required. The other thing they’ve that we don't do is research. If you’re a Level I, you’ll need to do a specific amount of research. If you could have Level II you possibly can do that. They put it on the market. I did it. I actually have written articles from this and other Level II trauma centers. But it isn’t mandatory.
Q: What have you ever learned in your practice here?
A: One of the belongings you learn while you get right into a latest system is the California health care system, and it has its own interesting quirks. I used to be here and was hired when the hospital became a trauma center, while the opposite hospitals I worked at were already trauma centers. So in my previous job I used to be accountable for trauma medicine, but that was already a trauma center. What we've all learned here is the right way to actually take an excellent community hospital to the subsequent level in order that it's now a trauma center.
DR. CHET MORRISION PROFILE
Education: BA in Chemistry and Biology from Cornell University; MD at George Washington University; Fellowship training in Trauma Critical Care on the Maryland Cowley Shock Trauma Center
Previous jobs: Senior Consultant in Trauma Surgery and Head of the Neurotrauma Intensive Care Unit at Lancaster General Hospital; Assistant Professor and Director of Surgical Critical Care at Michigan State University
Awards: Bronze Star and Meritorious Service Medal for service with the U.S. Army Medical Unit in Iraq and Korea
Five things about Chet
- He got here to Washington Hospital from Saginaw, Michigan.
- Prior to this position, he most recently served as trauma medicine director and department head at St. Mary's/Ascension Hospital.
- He held various leadership positions within the U.S. Army medical units.
- He was also an associate professor of surgery at Central Michigan University School of Medicine.
- He studied chemistry and biology at Cornell University.
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