Trauma Network Is Still on Critical List

Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena has provided a constructive example with its decision to remain in the trauma-care system of Los Angeles County. If four other hospitals agree to return to the system, the basic network will have been restored. For the moment.

There remains, however, the essential problem: the failure of the state and county to pay their full share of this costly but important service. The emergency funds drawn from the tobacco tax, which were used to encourage Huntington Hospital to maintain service, will run out in June of next year unless the Legislature renews the commitment. And even with those tobacco-tax funds, the hospitals are being forced to bear too much of the cost. Huntington alone estimates its losses from the trauma center at $1.5 million this year.

Gov. George Deukmejian has vetoed legislation to use general state funds to help finance the trauma centers, arguing that this is a county responsibility. That argument ignores the failure of the state to meet its obligations for adequately funding other county health-care programs, including services for medically indigent adults. The problem is not limited to Los Angeles County. Other areas, including Orange and Alameda counties, face crippling problems.

Trauma centers are of critical importance to all citizens, for no one knows where life-threatening injury from a traffic accident or other trauma may take place. The basic network, with centers within a 20-minute ambulance run of all areas, can make the difference between life and death. Unlike emergency rooms, which depend on calling in surgeons and specialists, the trauma centers have surgical specialty teams on duty at all times, able to intervene with the almost instant response sometimes needed to save lives.

There are good reasons for the dropout hospitals to rejoin the trauma network at this time. Tobacco-tax funds are assured for the time being, providing substantially increased funds for hospitals and medical staffs. A new governor, inevitably more committed to public-health issues, will take office in January. In the meantime, the Legislature is making progress on a plan to broaden health- insurance coverage. This, in turn, would reduce the amount of uncompensated care that is at the heart of the financial problems faced by hospitals with trauma centers.

County officials have hailed the decision of Huntington Memorial Hospital. “I’m hopeful that it heralds the beginning of a turnaround for the system,” Virginia Price-Hastings, head of the county trauma hospital program, said. Only with the return of four of the hospitals that left the system earlier can the network be adequately restored.