Alabama Legislation Aims to Create State Trauma System

Alabama could soon have a coordinated trauma system to steer critically injured people to the most appropriate nearby hospital.

Four state senators - Parker Griffith, D-Huntsville; Tom Butler, D-Madison; Arthur Orr, R-Decatur; and Zeb Little, D-Cullman - are co-sponsoring a bill calling for creation of a 24-hour statewide trauma dispatch center.

Managed by the state Health Department, the center would monitor patient flow at Alabama hospitals and relay that information to paramedics. If there's a massive pileup on Interstate 65 in Cullman County, for example, dispatchers would know whether Huntsville Hospital has enough trauma surgeons available to handle many wreck victims.

During a Thursday news conference at Huntsville Hospital, Griffith said the bill is moving rapidly through the House and Senate and is expected to pass before the legislative session ends next month.

A retired cancer doctor, Griffith said trauma deaths fell 12 percent in Birmingham after its hospitals began coordinating emergency care.

"Every Alabamian deserves access to the best trauma system we can give them to serve them and their loved ones," he said. "This new system will save lives."

Griffith said the health department has earmarked $1.3 million to create the basic framework for a statewide trauma system, although the final cost could be much higher. The dispatch center, probably located in Birmingham, would get constant computer updates from hospitals on available emergency room beds, surgeons and operating rooms. It would also keep close tabs on ambulance and rescue services.

The state has just three regional trauma centers - Huntsville Hospital, the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the University of South Alabama in Mobile.

David Spillers, Huntsville Hospital's chief executive officer, said hospital medical specialty programs occasionally get too busy to handle more trauma patients. Under the new system, he said, state dispatchers would know at a glance if Huntsville Hospital is full and could send ambulances and rescue helicopters to the next-closest hospital.

Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville and Erlanger Hospital in Chattanooga should be included in the program, Spillers said, because they treat many accident victims from North Alabama.

The bill calls for a statewide trauma registry to gather and study information about life-threatening injuries to help hospitals improve their care. It also opens the door for Huntsville Hospital to possibly receive state tax dollars to offset the high cost of treating severely injured trauma patients.

Several recent events in Alabama - the deadly Enterprise tornado in March, the Lee High bus wreck on I-565 last November and Hurricane Katrina in 2005 - underscore for the need for more efficient, coordinated emergency care, Griffith said.

"At some point in time," he said, "these are going to happen not in separate months but all together. We'll need to know what operating rooms are available, what surgeons are available."

Alabama's highways are also becoming increasingly congested, Griffith said, setting the stage for more multi-vehicle wrecks. He said state trauma dispatchers could help ensure that a person with a crushed skull, for example, gets hustled to an appropriate hospital within an hour, when they have the greatest chance at survival.

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