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Safety net system consolidates trauma, ER, acute-care services

Emergency Management Alert, April 18, 2007

From HCPro's sister publication, California Health Fax:

FRESNO- The Central Valley's only Level 1 trauma center and regional burn unit relocated to 457-bed Community Regional Medical Center this past week in the final phase of consolidating emergency and acute-care services from nearby University Medical Center.

Some 130 UMC patients were transferred two miles away to Community using a rotation of 10 ambulances accompanied by paramedics, nurses and physicians. On the second day of the three-day transfer, emergency care merged at Community's 58,000-square-foot ER with 68 treatment areas in the six-story $230 million trauma and critical care building. With an estimated 130,000 visits a year for the combined operation, the ER will be one of the largest and busiest in the state.

Community is one of the largest Medi-Cal providers in California, serving a
patient mix of 42 percent Medi-Cal, 29 percent Medicare, 4 percent county indigent,3 percent self-pay and 22 percent contract. In 2006, the medical center lost $18 million providing care to its Medi-Cal patients and provided $164 million in uncompensated care for the uninsured, he says.

To learn more about this story, or to subscribe to California Health Fax, call 800/753-0131.

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