The Regional Medical Center at Memphis has a new center that will provide sleeping quarters and conference space for the surgeons who staff The Elvis Presley Memorial Trauma Center.
Will Pierce, assistant systems adminstrator for the MED, hooks up computers inside the MED’s new Trauma Training and On-Call Facility. (Photos: Lance Murphey)
The new Trauma Training and On-Call Center made its public debut Thursday afternoon as The MED invited donors, board members and staff to tour it during an open house.
The Elvis Presley Memorial Trauma Center is the only level-one trauma center in a 150-mile radius of Memphis.
“This becomes the first step in giving (the surgeons) what they’ve deserved for many years,” said MED President and CEO Dr. Reginald Coopwood. “They sleep all over the hospital, and when a helicopter comes in, they have to come running.”
A former outpatient facility that was no longer being used was renovated extensively to create the new Trauma Training and On-Call Center, conveniently located near the trauma center ER.
“The trauma team is in house 24 hours a day; there have to be call rooms available for them to sleep,” said Dr. Jack McCue, chief medical officer for The MED.
“If there’s some slow time where they can catch a nap or do some reading, they need to be nearby so they’re immediately accessible to the emergency room.”
Until now, members of the trauma team have napped in scattered, uncomfortable call rooms located in noisy, bustling areas of the hospital, making it difficult to rest during downtimes in their 30-hour shifts.
The Regional Medical Center at Memphis recently opened its new Trauma Training and On-Call Center, which will provide quiet sleeping quarters, bathrooms and showers, a lounge and other amenities for the medical staff.
In addition to providing quiet sleeping quarters, the new facility will feature bathrooms and showers, a lounge, a small study area, and a conference room furnished with projectors and flat-screen televisions where doctors can educate residents regarding new procedures.
“Because we are a teaching hospital, it’s important for our physicians to be able to pass on and share their knowledge,” said Tammie Ritchey, executive director of The MED Foundation, the hospital’s fundraising arm for special projects and staff training.
The conference area will also serve as a confidential meeting space for medical staff to review patient information.
“They needed a place big enough to accommodate all of the residents and have the technology to look at procedures and pull up CT or MRI scans on specific patients,” she said. “Our trauma team is top-notch, and they deserve top-notch facilities. Medicine changes so quickly, it’s very important for them to be current on things. That affects our teaching and residency programs in attracting and keeping the best doctors here in Memphis and at The MED. This facility will play a role in that.”
The new multi-purpose facility will also include a waiting area for patients’ family members; right now there isn’t one near trauma ICU patients.
“If your loved one is in the trauma operating room or emergency room, the waiting area is way off on the second floor,” said McCue. “This gives us a waiting room that’s right next to the trauma emergency room so it’s much more convenient for family.”
The Elvis Presley Memorial Trauma Center was founded in 1983 by trauma care and research expert Dr. Timothy Fabian, who modeled the facility after the Baltimore Shock Trauma Center.
The center today is one of the busiest level-one trauma centers in the nation, seeing about 4,500 patients annually.
“We have some of the finest trauma surgeons and staff in this country. I put them above the others because the facility has not provided all the bells and whistles other trauma facilities across this country have provided for their trauma surgeons,” said Coopwood.
“I could be a mediocre trauma surgeon in a great facility and look good. But we’ve had great trauma surgeons in a mediocre facility and they still perform great.”
The trauma center’s level-one classification – the highest possible designation – means it’s required to be staffed around the clock by a team of highly skilled trauma specialists.
Now that the trauma team has a facility in which to rest, communicate and study, Ritchey said the benefits will be passed on to their patients.
“You’ll have residents who are well taken care of, given not only the training and education they need, but the facility they need in order to do the type of critical and significant work they do,” she said. “You want a well-rested resident. A happy staff and happy docs make for quality patient care.”
