Hi everybody, I’m Brian Evans. I’m the Chief Medical Officer for Tahoe Forest Health System. Today I want to talk a little bit about our Trauma Center designation.
Many of you are aware that Tahoe Forest now has a Level Three Trauma Center designation, but you might be wondering as a community member, what does that mean? Is that a big deal? How does that affect me as a resident, or maybe as a visitor to the North Lake Tahoe area?
What it means for you is that we have specialized resources, people that are trained very specifically on how to deal with traumas of all stripes. We are ready and able to take care of trauma patients who come into the emergency department or are brought to us. We can stabilize them and treat them in a way that is much more comprehensive than if we did not have that Trauma Center designation.
This is a pretty big deal. We’re staffed 24/7. We have physicians who are in some cases trauma surgeons. We have emergency department physicians, nurses, technicians, and many others who support this trauma service team. We have advanced diagnostic imaging, so we can treat a wide variety of things.
As you are aware, in the North Lake Tahoe area, we have millions of people visiting our area every year to take full advantage of what we have to offer recreationally, with skiing, mountain biking, and many other things. Unfortunately, sometimes people end up injured as a result of those activities. We’re now in a position where those people who are visiting, or the people that live here, feel safe because they know that they can access the kind of care that is necessary if they are unfortunate and do have an injury occur.
We’re really proud of this trauma designation. Part of the program involves educating the public. We work on prevention strategies to prevent injuries in the first place as part of our trauma designation. We are also really integrated well with the community in all of these efforts. We also meet on a regular basis to review cases, so we’re continuously improving how we take care of trauma patients at Tahoe Forest.
It’s great to have your support. We’re really excited about this designation, and we will continue to inform you as we go forward with updates about that service and many others as we go. Thank you so much for your support.
