Countywide
Six San Diego County hospitals and the county government have agreed to three-year contracts to provide trauma care centers for seriously injured accident victims.
The county Board of Supervisors approved the contracts routinely Tuesday after weeks of sometimes bitter negotiations.
The contracts call for a 33% reduction in the fee the county charges hospitals to participate in the system, designed to send the seriously injured to specially equipped and manned trauma centers, often past nearer, standard emergency rooms.
Rather than the $150,000 each hospital paid to join the system in its first year, the five adult trauma centers will pay $100,000 a year through 1988. Children’s Hospital will pay $75,000 a year.
The five adult centers are Mercy, Scripps Memorial, Sharp Memorial and Palomar Memorial hospitals and the UC San Diego Medical Center.
The fee was reduced after the hospitals complained that the county was charging them overhead costs not directly related to the trauma care system.
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