ST.MARY'S COULD BE OVERWHELMED WITH TRAUMA PATIENTS

HNN Staff


Normally when a business competitor shuts down, it's good news for the remaining businesses in town. But the CEO of St. Mary's Hospital said adding extra trauma patients that used to be sent to Charleston Area Medical Center could overwhelm the Huntington hospital. Mike Sellards said St. Mary's is already close to its maximum capacity. One Emergency Room Doctor, who declined to be identified for publication put it this way: "There's only so many beds and doctors. CAMC had a lot of trauma cases. We just don't have room for all the bodies." The situation is happening because the State of West Virginia recently downgraded CAMC's trauma center from Level One to Level Three due to staffing issues. The only other Trauma One center is in Northern West Virginia, hours away. So patients are being brought to Huntington because of the shorter distance. An ambulance driver, who would only give his name as "Mike," explained. "When we got a guy that's been shot up, he won't make it for a three-hour drive. So he's gotta go to Huntington. It's not like we got a choice here. Of course if people would stop shooting each other that would help, but those kinds of people don't read the papers to know that there's a trauma center shortage. If they can read at all." Sellards said Saint Mary's mission is to treat patients in need, but the hospital has a higher priority for people from the local area. Saint Mary's jointly operates a Level-Two trauma center with Cabell Huntington Hospital, a unique venture in West Virginia. While the two hospitals are allowed to perform any medical procedure that a Level One trauma center can do, they are not research facilities.