Georgia has only 15 trauma centers, about half the number needed according to those people advocating that the state provide funding for more of the centers and a statewide trauma system. Only three of the current centers are located south of Bibb County.

The Healthcare Georgia Foundation was recently awarded a $398,000 grant to fund a trauma awareness campaign designed to educate Georgians about the need for a statewide trauma system and to help keep the issue in the public eye. Wednesday, members of that foundation, leaders of area hospitals, physicians and surgeons, emergency medical personnel as well as a state representative met for two hours at the UGA Tifton Campus Conference Center to discuss the campaign.

“It’s a topic that needs our attention,” said Bill Richardson, president and CEO of Tift Regional Medical Center. “We need a more coordinated approach to trauma care. It’s fragmented at best.

“I know the state is in a budget crunch, but something has got to be done in South Georgia.”

Richardson serves on the Georgia Statewide Trauma Action Team and the Statewide Trauma Campaign Advisory Board.

A trauma center is a specialized hospital with appropriate professional staff and equipment available immediately to care for patients who have been severely injured in vehicle accidents, falls, shootings and other incidents. According to the HGF, such injuries caused more than 5,000 deaths in Georgia and resulted in more than 100,000 calls for emergency medical services. HGF said that Georgia’s trauma death rates are significantly higher than the national average and that between 600 and 700 lives each year could be saved if Georgia’s trauma death rate was at the national average.

HGF funded several grants conducted by the University of Georgia’s Survey Research Center. HGF said one of the findings of the study was that Georgians are willing to pay $25 or more a year to support a statewide trauma system.

HGF President Gary Nelson said that the Georgia legislature “has wrestled with the trauma issue for several years and made real progress.”

“But the failure earlier this year to act on dedicated long-term trauma care funding was a setback for efforts to provide financial support for existing trauma centers and expand the system.”

Rep. Austin Scott (R-Tifton), who serves on the state’s 2006 trauma services legislative committee, said during Wednesday’s conference that the breakdown in the legislature on the issue of funding was more about where to spend the money than where it would come from. He said that state did increase Medicaid reimbursement rates for trauma hospitals over those for non-trauma hospitals and urged non-trauma hospitals to ask for more Medicaid reimbursement funding.

One idea for raising money to support the state’s trauma system is to impose a fee on car tags bought in the state. That measure would have to be passed as an amendment to the constitution, Scott said, and the next opportunity to do that is 2010. Scott said sending the money raised through such a fee to north Georgia counties “is not acceptable” because more trauma centers were needed in south Georgia, particularly rural areas.

Scott urged those in attendance to talk with legislators and attempt to get the vote for the funding on the floor of the legislature. He also said that people in favor of a trauma system should also ask legislatures to approve the legislation without changing how the money for the system is currently allocated.

HGF urges people to visit the Web site at www.GeorgiaItsAboutTime.com and read more about the push for more trauma centers in the state and to sign a petition supporting the effort to establish a statewide trauma system.

To contact senior reporter Angie Thompson, call 382-4321.