Fresno won’t have elite trauma services if CRMC hospital fails to meet new deadline
Community Regional Medical Center has until 5 p.m. Friday to restore neurosurgical trauma services, or it risks losing the hospital’s designation as a Level I Trauma Center, the hospital’s chief of trauma and surgery told The Bee.
A warning letter from Fresno County Emergency Medical Services, which oversees the elite status, was sent to hospital officials on Tuesday. Central California Faculty Medical Group physician James Davis, the chief of trauma and surgery at CRMC, was copied in the letter.
Dan Lynch, director for Fresno County Emergency Medical Services, confirmed CRMC was given a 5p.m. Friday deadline. If the hospital doesn’t reestablish the neurosurgical services by then, its designation as a Level I Trauma Center will be “removed.”
“If it’s not fixed by 5 p.m. on Friday, we are not a trauma center anymore,” Davis told The Bee during an interview. “That means that CRMC would be viewed no differently by the county than Madera Community Hospital or Clovis Community Hospital, or Kaiser or Saint Anges, and the trauma system as we know it in Fresno County would fall apart.”
Michelle Von Tersch, senior vice president for communications and legislative affairs, said CRMC hopes to meet the Friday deadline.
“Either through a resolved agreement with CCFMG or by securing alternate neurosurgery call coverage, we are confident that we will restore neurosurgical call coverage in advance of the deadline,” she said in a statement to The Bee.
Contract dispute
The warning on CRMC’s trauma center’s status comes amid a contract dispute that began last week.
Neurosurgical trauma services were interrupted Sept. 2, hours after six neurosurgical trauma surgeons with CCFMG were left without a contract. Funding for 28 CCFMG physicians, including the six surgeons, who also teach at UCSF Fresno, expired last week. The neurosurgical trauma services are needed for CRMC to maintain its status as a Level I Trauma Center.
As of Tuesday, a total of 21 patients had to be transferred out of the Fresno to other hospitals for services that are currently suspended at CRMC, Davis said.
Negotiations remained at loggerheads Wednesday. Both sides have said negotiations haven’t stalled due to a disagreement in the dollar amount, but rather a funding model and a funding mechanism.
Neurosurgical trauma services are not only needed to treat patients with major head injuries but also stroke patients and spinal injuries, officials have said. Other Fresno area hospitals depend on the services at CRMC for those patients.
Fresno is the only Level I Trauma Center between Sacramento and Los Angeles. That means that as the Creek Fire spreads out of control this week, some top-level trauma services aren’t available in the central San Joaquin Valley.
Fresno County’s Emergency Medical Services is responsible for overseeing CRMC’s Level I Trauma Center status. A Level I Trauma Center means that all services related to trauma are immediately available, in-house, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The facility must also be a teaching hospital, officials have said.
Davis has been the chief of trauma in Fresno since 1991. He said the hospital’s trauma center status has never been threatened before.
He said the trauma center’s designation has been a pride not only for the hospital but also for the community.
Lynch said the lack of services at CRMC are also impacting other area hospitals and doctors, he said.
“CRMC has always been the place to go for services so this has really left a gap in the system that can’t easily be filed,” Lynch told The Bee.
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