Blake Sails Through Provisional Period for New Trauma Center

It's been a long and sometimes contentious three years, but Blake Medical Center has finally won it's hard fought designation as a Level II Trauma Center.

The Florida Department of Health on Friday awarded full designation for the Level II Trauma Center, making Blake the only trauma center in Sarasota, Manatee and DeSoto counties. Blake Medical Center is a 383-bed, acute-care, full service hospital.

"This designation is a culmination of the extraordinary work by our team of physicians, nurses and other clinicians and our shared goal of providing the best possible trauma care to the residents of Manatee, Sarasota and DeSoto counties,” said Daniel Friedrich, president and chief executive officer of Blake Medical Center. "By receiving this Level II Trauma Center designation, we continue to meet the needs of our growing community by providing quality trauma intervention and treatment."

The process began in September 2009 when Blake filed a Letter of Intent to Florida Department of Health. Lynne Grief, vice president of trauma services and Brian Kimbrell, the trauma medical director led a team in developing the Level II program.

While some of the major medical centers fought Blake's plan to add trauma care, Grief said that the trauma center is vital to the community and to patient care.

“We can be proud of this accomplishment,” Grief said. “It required tremendous dedication by our team to create something our community truly needs. Saving lives is our mission and we’re certain this can be done by eliminating long transport times to other hospitals farther away. Keeping families of trauma patients closer to their loved ones, often helps the recovery process as well.”

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The hospital, which offers a wide range of healthcare services including 24-hour emergency care, open-heart surgery, cancer care, joint replacement, back surgery and rehabilitation, worked hard to prove that it can handle the trauma traffic coming through its doors.

“During the last couple years, Blake Medical Center has built the infrastructure for trauma care and other advanced medical services,” Kimbrell said. “We have built a team of trauma surgeons, anesthesia and OR staff, in-house 24 hours a day, to tend to trauma patients. In addition we have a team of on-call specialists who are immediately available to assist in the treatment of patients. These encompassing efforts illustrate our dedication to providing the highest level of care for our patients.”

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