Trauma Time

The now infamous 2,000 pages in the federal health care reform bill probably seem like a pamphlet to Dr. Brian Kimbrell and Lynne Grief.
Consider: The duo compiled at least 8,000 pages of text, documents and statements in their yearlong effort to bring the first-ever hospital trauma center to Manatee and Sarasota counties. Then they lugged the binders back and forth from Bradenton to Tallahassee for a multitude of meetings, hearings and strategy sessions.
The undertaking, at least on an interim basis, was successful. Their hospital, Blake Medical Center in west Bradenton, opened a trauma center Nov. 19 under provisional approval from state officials.

Now, after six months, Blake has begun to receive feedback on the complicated, costly and controversial move to launch the trauma center. Trauma centers, which are notoriously difficult for making profits, are basically enhanced emergency rooms, only better equipped with more staff for the most severe medical situations. Margins are thin because a department like that is expensive to operate 24 hours a day, and patients are often not covered by insurance.

Nashville-based HCA owns Blake, one of more than 40 medical centers the publicly traded firm owns in Florida. “It was a decision we made very carefully,” Blake spokeswoman Stephanie Petta says. “There was a big risk involved. But once we knew this would save lives, how could we not do it?”