Local medical teams participate in rural trauma training

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Area medical workers participated in training today for dealing with rural trauma.

The University of Kentucky instructed attendees on how best to deliver life-saving care while determining where the patient should end up for the specialized services they need.

Kentucky only has two level one trauma centers in Louisville and Lexington, and patients in our area are often sent to Nashville. But it is local medical workers that have to keep victims in our area alive and get them to a trauma center if they need that care.

Dr. Andrew Bernard, trauma medical director with the University of Kentucky, says, “Injury is the number one killer of young Kentuckians under the age of 45. Number one killer is injury. And we know that unfortunately, many patients who die from injury didn’t have to die. They could have been saved with good trauma care.”

Dr. Tracy Cross, director of trauma for Rural Hospitals at Med Center Health, shared the critical role of local medical workers in this process.

Cross says, “We are a stopgap. We are the people who are going to be able to assess patients immediately. Work with our EMS, with our flight programs, on getting people who are critically injured or beyond the level of care that the outside facility with Med Center Health can provide, and get them either to Med Center for further care or get them to one of the level one trauma centers in the state.”

Med Center Health and its rural hospitals are often on the front lines for rural trauma victims.