Forbes Hospital in Monroeville marked the 10th anniversary of its trauma program in October 2023.
Prior to the program’s opening 11 years ago, patients in the eastern portion of Southwestern Pennsylvania who suffered severe injuries relied on medical helicopters to take them to the nearest trauma centers — stationed in Pittsburgh.
UPMC Mercy in Uptown, UPMC Presbyterian in Oakland and AHN Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh’s North Side are the next closest adult trauma centers in the region. UPMC Children’s Hospital operates a pediatric trauma center in Lawrenceville.
Traffic along the Parkway, notably leading into the Squirrel Hill Tunnel, made it impossible for ambulances to move patients in a timely manner, said Mike Taramelli, director of Forbes’ trauma program.
“All of the trauma data shows that if you are severely injured, if you arrive to a trauma center within 60 minutes of the injury, your probability of survival is increased,” Taramelli said. “It was identified that the majority of the patients in the eastern suburbs and Westmoreland County were not able to reach a trauma center within 60 minutes.”
And although helicopters are helpful for transportation times of 45 minutes or longer, they are not always timely for short distances, he said.
“There’s a lot of logistical variables with helicopter transport — weather, availability of the helicopter landing zones — that made that logistically complicated,” Taramelli said.
Opening a trauma center at Forbes has made care for severe injuries more accessible to residents of Armstrong, Indiana, Fayette, Somerset, Westmoreland and eastern Allegheny counties.
The center is staffed with eight trauma surgeons and nine trauma advanced practitioners. It sees about 3,000 patients each year.
“When it comes down to trauma care, time is what matters the most, and it’s all about ‘How do we get the injured patient to a trauma center and to an operating room as fast as we possibly can?’
“That’s the benefit of having a suburban trauma center,” Taramelli said. “It brings that high level of care to the patient as opposed to bringing the patient to the high level of care. We’ve seen — in this case and many others over the years — the benefit that that has on patient recovery and patient survivability.”