St. Mary Medical Center receives verification from American College of Surgeons’ Trauma Committee

St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach recently announced that its trauma center has once again been verified as a Level II Trauma Center by the American College of Surgeons (ACS), a designation that recognizes the hospital’s dedication and readiness for providing optimal care for injured patients.

“I’m proud of our Emergency Department and the fantastic clinicians who take care of our trauma patients,” said Joel Yuhas, president and CEO of St. Mary, a Dignity Health medical facility. “It is significant that St. Mary has achieved this Trauma Level II verification of high quality.”

St. Mary’s has received the Level II Trauma Center designation since 1985. The verification program — administered by ACS’s Committee on Trauma (COT) — assesses five separate categories of trauma services via on-site reviews by a team of experienced reviewers. Facilities must meet the essential criteria that have been established to ensure optimal trauma care capability and institutional performance.

The primary goal of the verification program is to “promote the development of trauma centers…to address the needs of all injured patients, [from] the pre-hospital phase through the rehabilitation process.”