Level 1 Trauma Center Difference

What distinguishes a Level I Trauma Center from other levels of trauma care? Level I is the highest designation, indicating that the most advanced care is available. One key difference is Level I Trauma Centers like Stony Brook provide 24/7 access to in-house (as opposed to on-call), board-certified critical care specialists and trauma surgeons.

Having this in-house expertise available at all times means immediate treatment of all types of traumatic and complex injuries.

What’s more, Stony Brook University Hospital has 20 operating rooms, plus CT scanners and MRI machines right in the Emergency Department, with ready access to blood products through its Blood Bank. For children, Stony Brook provide a dedicated Pediatric Emergency Department adjacent to the main Emergency Department, staffed by board-certified pediatric emergency medicine physicians.

Comprehensive, excellent trauma care can save lives. Having met the strict quality and safety standards set by the ACS, Stony Brook Trauma Center also participates in a national quality program with more than 300 other trauma centers nationwide. Based on its patient outcome results, Stony Brook consistently ranks within the top percentile nationwide for its care of patients who are seriously injured. In fact in the most recent report, it was found that patients who were seriously injured and then treated at Stony Brook Trauma Center were much less likely to die or to develop a major complication than patients treated at other participating trauma centers.

Another differentiating feature of Level I Trauma Centers is enhanced outreach and teaching programs. Stony Brook Trauma Center focuses on injury prevention by offering a number of special programs designed to keep community members safe.

These programs include teddy bear clinics, senior falls prevention programs, traffic violator education programs and courses that teach bleeding control for the injured. Stony Brook also provides sports safety clinics, teen driving initiatives, Safe Kids “Safety Games,” parent information sessions and more to organizations in the community — all free of charge.