Severely burned patients in Fort Worth may soon no longer need to be rushed across county lines for lifesaving care. Hospital leaders and regional emergency officials are lining up behind a plan that could keep the most critical burn cases in the city, depending on a key verification and an upcoming local board vote.
According to the Fort Worth Report, Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Fort Worth would be able to receive severe burn patients from emergency service personnel once the American Burn Association confirms the hospital’s verification to the Medical Control Advisory Board. If that happens and the board signs off, Fort Worth EMS field triage rules would be updated so some major burn patients could be taken to the Fort Worth hospital instead of being sent out of Tarrant County.
Board members have already started hashing out the details. They discussed changing the destination criteria at a March 26 meeting, and the Medical Control Advisory Board will still have to vote before any protocols change, Fort Worth Report notes. Jeffrey Jarvis, Fort Worth’s chief medical officer and chair of the advisory board, told the outlet, “It’s going to be a huge benefit for us to be able to keep our patients in Fort Worth.” An emergency-medicine expert on the board, Dr. Brian Miller, added, “Those are the thresholds we take.”
What Verification Would Mean for Fort Worth
Texas Health Fort Worth has been quietly building out a burn program inside its Level I trauma center as part of its push for American Burn Association verification, adding staff and resources it says are meant to bolster both trauma and burn care. In a Texas Health Fort Worth news release, the hospital reported that it was recently redesignated a Comprehensive Level I Trauma Facility and has expanded emergency resources that leadership says will support higher-acuity patients…