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Comer Children's Hospital Expanding Trauma Center To Treat Older Kids

By Sam Cholke | December 9, 2014 5:46am
 University of Chicago Comer Children's Hospital will ask the state to allow it to expand its trauma services to 16- and 17-year-olds.
University of Chicago Comer Children's Hospital will ask the state to allow it to expand its trauma services to 16- and 17-year-olds.
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University of Chicago

HYDE PARK — The University of Chicago is expanding trauma care at Comer Children’s Hospital to include kids up to age 17.

The university said Monday that it would begin seeking state approval to expand its services for the victims of life-threatening injuries like gunshot wounds and car accidents that are too serious for a regular emergency room.

“We decided that expanding trauma care to all minor children would help provide an important service to a particularly vulnerable part of our community,” said Sharon O’Keefe, president of the University of Chicago Medical Center.

Comer Children’s Hospital has treated trauma patients up to age 15 since opening in 2005 at 5721 S. Maryland Ave. Older patients needed to be transported to trauma centers at Stroger Hospital on the West Side, Northwestern Memorial Hospital Downtown or Advocate Christ Memorial Hospital in south suburban Oak Lawn for care.

The university said the cutoff at age 15 was because of rules defining pediatric care by the Illinois Department of Public Health, which licenses trauma centers.

The agency recently relaxed its definition of a pediatric trauma center to include 16- and 17-year-olds, a move that almost immediately prompted critics to call on the university to expand care at Comer.

“The willingness of [the state] to support such an expansion is an exciting opportunity for the U. of C. to further its mission of improving health and access to quality care on the South Side of Chicago,” said Dr. Philip Verhoef, who specializes in pulmonary medicine at the University of Chicago and is sympathetic to calls for the university to become a full-service trauma center. It would be the only such trauma center on the South Side.

Medical students and activists were set to publicly call on the university Tuesday to raise the age restrictions on its pediatric trauma center.

Organizers could not be reached for comment, but in a statement about the new state policy on pediatric trauma care they said they expected the state to approve an application by the university to expand care.

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