Tufts wins approval as major trauma center

By Liz Kowalczyk, Globe Staff

Tufts Medical Center has won approval as a major trauma center, a designation that will change where ambulances take some of the region's most critically injured patients.

Until now, Tufts in Boston's Chinatown neighborhood has been the only major Boston teaching hospital not approved as an adult trauma center. As a result, ambulances carrying victims of car accidents, falls, or violence often have bypassed that hospital for Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston Medical Center, Brigham and Women's Hospital, or Massachusetts General Hospital, all state-designated trauma centers.

Some doctors at other Boston hospitals have argued that the city already has enough trauma centers, and that to spend several million dollars to open another one is a poor use of resources.

But the trauma designation carries prestige and potential increases in patients and revenue. Dr. Brien Barnewolt, head of emergency medicine at Tufts, said the primary reason for creating an adult trauma service is that it will improve care for all patients, because it requires the hospital to have more highly-trained staff on site or nearby and collect extensive data on patient outcomes.

To become a state-designated trauma center, hospitals must have their programs verified by the American College of Surgeons. Tufts received American College approval earlier this month, followed by approval from the state Department of Public Health.

This means that the college has given the program its stamp of approval, and determined that it meets requirements such as having an operating room open and ready at all times and a trauma surgeon within 15 minutes of the hospital 24 hours a day.

The state also recently approved South Shore Hospital in Weymouth as a major trauma center.