Under the direction of the JPS trauma director, Raj R. Gandhi, MD, PhD, the hospital has attained Level I Trauma Center designation.  JPS is the first and only Level I Trauma Center in Tarrant County - previously, Tarrant County was the largest county in Texas to not have a Level I Trauma Center.  Prior to 2010, the only other non-pediatric Level I Trauma Centers in the entire DFW Metroplex - an area of more than 6 million people - were Parkland Hospital and Baylor University Medical Center, both located in Dallas.  The only other Level I Trauma Centers in Texas, west of the Interstate 35 corridor, were located in El Paso and Lubbock.  

What does JPS' status as a Level I Trauma Center mean in real terms for Tarrant County?  

More lives saved

The bottom line in health care is saving lives.  According to the Centers for Disease Control, trauma is the leading cause of death for persons under the age of 44.  Level I Trauma Centers have that designation because they are better prepared to save the lives of people who are most seriously injured.  JPS is doing it under more difficult circumstances than most other Level I Centers.  

Consider this: nationally, 2.5 - 5 percent of all Level I Trauma Center patients have injuries to three or more bodily systems; e.g., someone has a cranial injury, a punctured lung and a broken leg.  At JPS, that average is much higher - 7.5 to 12 percent of all patients have three or more injured systems.  Yet, despite the much greater intake of seriously injured patients, JPS' mortality rate is no higher than its peers nationwide.  

A hospital for all of Tarrant County

The high level of medical care that Texas Health Care physicians provide at JPS has helped expand the patient base at JPS.  Many often think of JPS as the hospital for the use of indigent and uninsured.  And clearly, that is the core responsibility of the hospital - to provide quality health care for the entire Tarrant County community.  

Increasingly, however, people in Tarrant County recognize that JPS is the place to turn to in life-threatening situations, regardless of ability to pay.  That's why private-pay patients are making up a greater share of JPS' trauma patients.  Consider:

• While approximately 75 percent of JPS patients overall are uninsured; only 35 percent of JPS trauma patients are uninsured.  The additional private-pay revenue that JPS returns to the system helps provide better care for the uninsured and the indigent.  
• Since the Level I Trauma designation, members of the City of Fort Worth's Police and Fire Departments have turned to JPS for emergency care.   
• Out-of-county trauma patient encounters have increased, as well.    JPS typically breaks even or even makes a profit on these encounters.

The highest standards of care

The American College of Surgeons requires trauma centers to meet more than 200 different criteria or standards in order to be verified a Level I Trauma Center.  Here are just a few of those standards that Texas Health Care surgeons have helped JPS attain, improving the level of care for all patients:

• Reduced response time
• Contributing to the daily "morning report" in which a multi-disciplinary medical team assesses critical cases
• Immediate access to many critical specialists who might be needed
• Strict standards for the time it takes a physician to arrive at a patient's bedside (15 minutes or less)
• A robust process improvement and patient safety plan
• Outreach and education to pre-hospital and hospital providers
• Prevention activities in the community
• Research and scholarship to maintain the highest standards of care
• Disaster planning and management