What is a trauma center? A trauma center is not a physical part of a hospital like an emergency room, but is instead a designation for institutions that have specialized training, surgical staff, the best equipment for emergencies, and accreditation to treat the most severely injured patients.  It's very much a team approach, and the team involves specially trained doctors and nurses and a range of other specialists including neurosurgeons, anesthesiologists and orthopedic surgeons.  Typically, all of those specialists will have to be in the hospital or within 10 or 15 minutes from the hospital, and they have to be available around the clock.  The scope of services provided include radiological service, clinical-laboratory service, alcohol and drug screening, social services/pastoral-care support, rehabilitation, outreach, injury prevention/public outreach and quality of life improvement.

A national study has confirmed that trauma centers - hospitals specially equipped to deal with gunshot wounds, car crashes and other serious injuries - save lives. Patients treated at trauma centers are more likely to survive the injury and more likely to be alive a year later, too, the study found.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention helped fund the study, published in New England Journal of Medicine (January 2006)