Lee Health moves trauma center to Gulf Coast Medical Center

NAM MY

Lee Health’s trauma center moved after the hospital system spent $315 million to expand the Gulf Coast Medical Center.

The move from Lee Memorial Hospital to Gulf Coast Medical Center was official Wednesday morning. The Lee Health trauma center is the only one between Sarasota and Miami.

The reason for the move, according to Lee Health, is that Southwest Florida’s population continues to grow and so does the number of trauma patients.

To keep up, the hospital system needs more space and high-end equipment. The trauma center at Lee Memorial Hospital also needs an upgrade.

Doctors say it’s a huge improvement over the old one.

“We have a bigger ICU, we have a new facility,” said Dr. James Kasiewicz, medical director of trauma services at Gulf Coast Medical Center. “We can control the climate better than our trauma facility, much larger areas in the trauma bays. They’re beautiful.”

The Lee Health trauma center treats approximately 2,400 trauma patients each year.

And injury warnings continue to rise from vehicle crashes, falls and even gunshot wounds.

In the Gulf Coast, there are 624 hospital beds.

“Over 90% of our injuries are major injuries and falls, motor vehicle crashes, and motorcycle crashes, and less than 10% are penetrating injuries, which are stab wounds and lacerations,” says Kasiewicz. shot by gun.

Kasiewicz said moving to a location near I-75 is crucial to saving lives.

“We’ll be able to get them here faster and get them to the trauma center so we can manage them,” he said. “We always talk about the golden hours. So it’s really important to get to the patient quickly to treat them.”

Now that the trauma center has been moved, Lee Memorial will begin converting to a hospital with all private rooms.

Moving the trauma center is part of a much larger Lee Health expansion.

There is a new hospital under construction along Challenger Avenue and another planned in Cape Coral.

Related

Copyright 2022 Fort Myers Broadcasting Company. Copyright Registered. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without prior written consent.