Kendall Regional Opens New Trauma Center

KENDALL (CBSMiami) – Kendall Regional Medical Center has opened its new trauma center, making it the second adult trauma center in the county.

The hospital, at 11750 Bird Road, received a provisional license as a Level II Trauma Center to provide services for Miami-Dade and Monroe Counties.

In order to receive it's license, the hospital built a helipad, two trauma rooms and hired an around-the-clock team of trauma surgeons and nurses.

According to Kendall Regional Medical Center CEO Scott Cihak, 2,500 patients a year in Miami-Dade County experience trauma but they're treated at an emergency room that does not have trauma services.

Now Kendall Regional, an affiliate of Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), hopes to fulfill that need.

"Getting a patient to a trauma center within the first hour of injury, or golden hour, drastically increases their chance of survival,'" said HCA's Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Perlin in a statement earlier this year. "Research supported by the Centers for Disease Control shows trauma mortality is reduced when a seriously injured patient is treated at a trauma center versus a non-trauma hospital."

According to HCA, only about 38% of trauma patients in the state receive treatment in a licensed trauma center. The number is well below the national average and the state's goal to have 65 percent of trauma patients treated in a Florida licensed trauma center.

The Florida Department of Health has identified a need for a total of six adult trauma programs in the Miami-Dade and Monroe county areas.