Harris, NY – Sullivan County has the highest car-crash fatality rate in the region. The county’s only hospital is a 30-minute ride from some of the more rural towns.
Too often, there was no “golden hour.”
“We don’t have the luxury of the city, where we can just scoop and run,” said Dr. Abdul Shahzad, one of two trauma surgeons at Catskill Regional Medical Center in Harris. “Our greatest challenge is bringing the patient to the hospital.”
“The golden hour could be wasted just transporting a patient here,” said Dr. Art Goldstein, a thoracic surgeon and the trauma director at Catskill.
Severe trauma patients must go to Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla. It takes about 35 minutes for a helicopter to get to Sullivan, and another 35 to 40 minutes to get the patient to Westchester.
So Catskill decided to seize the golden hour. “We wanted to become the first community-based hospital in the area to have a trauma-team response,” said Stuart Hirsch, Catskill’s director of critical operations.
“It is probably the best move that the hospital has made to improve emergency services out of the ER since its inception,” said Albee Bockman, a paramedic and CEO of the Mobilemedic ambulance service. “A patient has a much greater chance for survival.”
(Source: Times Herald Record)
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6 Responses
Harris hospital will always be a butcher shop, no matter what. The anouncing of improvement will just create more kurbonis R”L
Hey stopit I was born in harris hospital
Hopefully the informatioin that there is such a high car crash mortality rate will be a wake up call for us all to drive safely and defensively not only in the Catskills but everywhere.
Purim is coming and that means don’t drive and drink. I have been on Hatzalah calls on Purim invloving children that were hit crossing the street delivering and getting Shalach Manos. They were hit by drivers who had been drinking. Taking children off the street on stretchers to the ambulance is not what Hatzalah people like doing, especially when it is caused by drivers who were drinking.
I think this is a very important step. I also think that if Harris Hospital was really serious about saving lives, they would build a helicopter landing designed to transport victims to Westchester County Medical Center. But, if is all about money.
they are desprite. all good docters have left them.
Why don’t we look at the obvious causes of the the high car crash rate fatality. Not observing the speed limits both on route 17 and more importantly on the local roads, these roads are not raceways, there are clear reasons for variouse speed limits. Lets observe them and save a Neshema today and that Neshema may be YOU.