Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital is now a Level 1 Trauma Center, the only facility in the Tri-County area with the highest rating.
The designation for the hospital, at 400 W. Pueblo St., recognizes its trauma care for injured patients and its resources to address needs from the preventive-care phase all the way through the rehabilitation phase, according to Cottage Health.
“Trauma is the leading cause of death for the first four decades of life, so having trauma care is important pretty much everywhere,” said Dr. Stephen Kaminski, medical director of Trauma Services and the Surgical Intensive Care Unit.
Cottage not only serves as a trauma center for the community, but plays a larger role in the region with its teaching and research programs, he said.
“Becoming a Level 1 kind of fit with what the hospital has always performed in its role within the region, but that’s not to say that it’s easy,” Kaminski said.
The American College of Surgeons verifies trauma centers as Levels 1 through Level 4, Level 1 being the highest.
Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital’s Trauma Center has been a Level 2 facility since 2009.
The lowest level of trauma center has an emergency room, while the highest level “can take care of all disease processes that might come in the door,” and is the go-to place in a region, Kaminski said.
Having more resources — such as surgery, orthopedics, an Intensive Care Unit and neurosurgery — increases the level, he added.
It’s rare for a private hospital to get the Level 1 verification, without the support of a major university or government agency, Kaminski noted.
“It’s something we wanted to do not just for a plaque on the wall, but for our community and our region,” he said. “It’s one of the cornerstones of what we think we do well and what we want to do well going forward.”
Kaminski noted that in addition to administrative and clinical care work, he also reviews other trauma centers for the American College of Surgeons, which is a great way to import best practices to Cottage.
Cottage Health operates the Santa Barbara, Goleta and Santa Ynez hospitals, which all have different levels of emergency services.
Trauma centers themselves are designated by a local emergency medical services agency, and there are five of them in San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties:
» Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center in San Luis Obispo (Level 3 from ACS)
» Marian Regional Medical Center in Santa Maria (Level 3 from ACS)
» Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara (Level 1 from ACS)
» Ventura County Medical Center in Ventura (Level 2 from ACS)
» Los Robles Hospital and Medical Center in Thousand Oaks (Level 2 from ACS)
The levels are evaluated every three years.
— Noozhawk managing editor Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.