Floyd Medical Center is in line to receive $1.98 million from a $58.9 million earmark aimed at shoring up the state’s crumbling trauma care network.
Grady Hospital in Atlanta will get the lion’s share, $12.7 million, of the money divided up Monday by the Georgia Trauma Care Network Commission.
“This is a great day for trauma care in Georgia,” said Kurt Stuenkel, FMC president and CEO who served as one of nine appointees on the Commission.
Gov. Sonny Perdue’s one-time allocation in the state’s 2008 supplemental budget is the first time Georgia’s 15 trauma centers have received targeted funding.
Contracts spelling out the individual allocations are due to the centers by Monday and due back to the Commission by June 23. Stuenkel said the money must be committed by the end of the fiscal year June 30.
“It stabilizes the system,” Stuenkel said. “But we still need ongoing funding. We’re taking it on faith this will be dealt with next year (when the Georgia General Assembly reconvenes.)”
FMC is one of nine Level II trauma centers in the state. Grady is one of the four maintaining a Level I classification, able to treat the most serious injuries from wrecks, falls, assaults and home or workplace accidents.
Another two hospitals offer Level IV trauma care, but much of the state must depend on typical emergency rooms for immediate response to life-threatening injuries.
Stuenkel said the Commission earmarked $23.8 million for readiness costs — including expensive high-tech equipment — and divided it according to the level of care.
Another $23.8 million for uncompensated care was split based on the volume of patients. The Commission used data from 2006 for the allocations.
Stuenkel said 25 percent of each hospital’s share must go to pay its physicians’ costs, primarily on-call pay for emergency room specialists and their own outstanding bills.
FMC got a little over $1.5 million for readiness, Stuenkel said, and $461,000 for uncompensated care.
The balance of the state money is set aside for competitive grants, emergency medical services and administrative costs.
The grants, totaling a little over $4 million, will be awarded to Level I and Level II centers for equipment, research or other projects that will benefit the network or their service area. EMS companies throughout the state also will get about $4 million to share.
“Some areas of Georgia are using ambulances with more than 300,000 miles on them,” Stuenkel said.
Georgia’s trauma death rate is significantly higher than the national average — 63 of every 100,000 victims compared with 56 per 100,000 nationally, according to the Georgia Statewide Trauma Action Team.
FMC became the state’s first designated trauma center in 1981.
Stuenkel said trauma centers are finding it increasingly hard to maintain their certifications in the face of rising, uncompensated costs.
Wellstar Kennestone Hospital in Marietta and DeKalb Medical Center were the latest to resign their designations, leaving 15 centers in a state the GSTAT contends should have at least 30 “strategically placed” facilities.
Click here for more information about FMC and the trauma care network.
