Norfolk, Va.-based Sentara Norfolk General Hospital recently marked 30 years as a Level I trauma center.
The hospital, which is one of five Level I trauma centers in Virginia, marked the milestone Sept. 14.
Here are six things to know about Sentara Norfolk General Hospital's trauma center.
1. It is maintained through Sentara's partnership with surgeons from Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, according to a news release. In addition to those surgeons, other surgeons serve the program through a call system.
2. Sentara Norfolk General Hospital's trauma program receives patients within a 125-mile radius.
3. The trauma center offers care in specialties such as orthopedic surgery, neurosurgery, anesthesiology, emergency medicine, radiology, internal medicine, plastic surgery, oral and maxillofacial, pediatric and critical care.
4. Over the last 30 years, the Level I trauma center has seen 61,552 patients, according to a news release.
5. For calendar year 2014, Sentara Norfolk General Hospital reports a financial deficit for the Level I trauma program of $3.2 million. That includes a $1.6 million operating deficit for the hospital-based Nightingale Regional Air Ambulance program, which flies about 50 percent trauma patients and 50 percent transfers of critically ill patients from smaller community hospitals to Sentara Norfolk General for specialized care, according to a news release.
6. Sentara attributes the financial losses in part to the high cost of trauma readiness and a significant amount of uncompensated care for uninsured or underinsured patients.