The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has designated UCHealth Medical Center of the Rockies, or MCR, in Loveland as a Level 1 trauma center. The first and only hospital in northern Colorado with this classification.
The Level 1 classification means the hospital can treat severe and complex injuries and residents of northern Colorado now have rapid access to the highest level of emergency and trauma care without having to travel to Denver.
The designation was finalized by the state on July 14 after a trauma designation survey followed nearly two decades of building services to support a Level 1 trauma center.
“Not only is this a great achievement for our hospital, but it’s also great news for our patients and our community,” said Kevin Unger, MCR’s president and CEO. “For years, we have been delivering a very high level of trauma care. This designation officially recognizes us for that excellence and sets us on a path of continued progress.”
Hospital trauma designations are determined by a plethora of criteria including surgical resources and patient volumes.
Key factors required to become a Level 1 trama center include around-the-clock coverage by trauma surgeons and prompt availability of specialists in orthopedics, neurosurgery and anesthesiology, among others.
These facilities also must be leaders in trauma prevention and education and conduct and meet research volume requirements for treating severely injured patients.
In 2007, MCR treated 880 trauma patients by 2021, this number grew to 1,855 trauma patients.
MCR also serves as a regional referral destination for patients from dozens of hospitals in Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska.
“It truly takes a village to care for a patient, especially our most critically injured patients,” said Dr. Warren Dorlac, the hospital’s trauma medical director. “It starts with EMS and law enforcement in the field. Then at the hospital, it’s the nurses, doctors and technicians. It’s also everyone in the laboratory, radiology, pharmacy, the operating room, the intensive care unit, nutrition, environmental services, therapists and everyone in between.”
For many years patients in northern Colorado did not have a Level 1 trauma center, the only one was located in the Denver metro area.
“This highest level of trauma care means our most critically injured patients stay closer to home and their families can more easily stay or visit them,” Dorlac added.
This latest designation means that half of the state’s six Level 1 trauma centers are owned by UCHealth. UCHealth Memorial Hospital Central and UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital are also Level I Trauma Centers.
