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Coalition Says Houston's Trauma Care Situation Is Desperate
December 18, 2001
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HOUSTON, TX-(December 18, 2001). Declaring Houston's emergency care system nearing a crisis, a group of prominent physicians and administrators from hospitals throughout Harris County today announced the formation of "Save Our ERs," a coalition organized to garner crucial support for the Houston area's Level I trauma centers and emergency rooms.
"Houston's trauma care system isn't just doing a slow burn, it's going up in flames," said prominent Houston trauma surgeon Dr. James H. "Red" Duke. "Our doctors and nurses are doing the best they can, but people are dying more and more often because we can't get them the trauma care they need in time to save them. If we should have any real widespread catastrophe in Houston, our trauma care system will go into almost immediate meltdown."
Organized by Houston businessman and President of Norton Ditto, Dick Hite, and by Dr. Guy Clifton, Chief of Neurosurgery at Hermann Hospital, the goal of Save Our ERs is to heighten community awareness of the grave lack of trauma care capability in Houston's emergency rooms and to enlist the public's support for legislative action to correct the problem. Hite called the press conference today to kick off what he said would be an aggressive countywide campaign to rally strong community support to beef up Houston's trauma care capabilities.
Dr. Clifton stated, "Emergency room demand for care in Houston has increased beyond our capabilities. Dangerous delays in delivery of medical care to seriously ill emergency patients are occurring daily. Few people in Houston are aware of the severity of the situation, but our medical community knows that something has to be done to buttress the system."
Hite and Clifton were joined at the press conference by scores of physicians, hospital administrators and medical personnel from hospitals throughout Harris County, all of whom gathered in support of the Save Our ERs initiative. One after another, the members of the group echoed the alarm sounded by their colleagues and called on the public to make loud its demands to legislators in Austin.
Dr. Brent King, Chief of Emergency Services for Memorial Hermann Hospital, said, "This isn't about the needs of any single hospital, it is about the needs of the entire county. We are joining together to help each other and to make sure that this city is prepared to take care of every man, woman and child who needs emergency medical treatment."
Dr. Ken Mattox, Chief of Staff for Ben Taub Hospital, agreed. "Ben Taub Hospital is so overwhelmed that the dam is about to break. We are turning people away every day. Something has got to be done, and done fast."
Dr. David Persse, Director of the City's Emergency Medical Services, said that Houston's hospitals-which serve all of Harris County-are breaking under the burgeoning need for trauma care. More and more often, he said, they are being forced to go to "drive-by" or divert status, notifying paramedics to take emergency patients to other hospitals. Persse stated, "Increasingly, many of Houston's hospitals are on divert status for emergency patients at the same time." He called on the Texas Legislature to provide funding to stabilize Houston's trauma centers so they can rise to the call of the community's needs.
Dr. Tim Seay, Regional Medical Director for the Greater Houston Emergency Physicians, a group of physicians serving Houston area Hospital Corporation of America hospitals, said, "We are flying children with injuries out of Houston because of a lack of availability of pediatric intensive care beds."
Dick Hite, the coalition's chairman, declared in closing, "We are here today to announce the formation of the coalition and to begin generating a groundswell of public support for resolving what, literally, is a life-and-death problem for every person in this county. We now will turn our attention toward developing a detailed, workable plan that we can take to the Legislature for implementation."
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