South Side Level 1 Trauma Center Clears Last Regulatory Hurdle
The Illinois Department of Public Health approved a level 1 trauma center at University of Chicago Medicine’s Hyde Park campus, which will officially begin on May 1st. “This is a momentous occasion for our institution and for the South Side, as we expand critical services to our neighbors,” said Selwyn Rogers Jr., chief of trauma and acute care surgery and director of the trauma center. “With this new IDPH adult-trauma designation, UChicago Medicine can offer integrated trauma care, as we build upon services provided by our existing Level 1 pediatric trauma program and the Burn and Complex Wound Center.” Community activists fought for years to get the school to open a trauma center, staging numerous protests, sit-ins, and other actions to push the University to opening a facility, which the South Side has lacked for nearly three decades. (UChicago News)