California Trauma System Needs Planning and Funding, Experts Testify
The California trauma care system needs statewide planning and a permanent budget to avoid the "patchwork funding" that causes it to "lurc[h] from crisis to crisis," according to testimony before a joint state hearing Tuesday, the AP/Contra Costa Times reports.
At the hearing -- which took place at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center in Los Angeles -- Leonard Inch, regional executive director of the Sierra-Sacramento Valley Emergency Medical Services Agency, said that as much as $600 million per year in additional funding would be needed to maintain the current system of trauma centers.
Christy Preston, trauma system program manager for Los Angeles County, told the panel that health care officials have found "no cure" for problems faced by the trauma care system. "We're still Band-Aiding the system," she said.
In addition, some members of the panel said they supported Proposition 67, a measure on the Nov. 2 statewide ballot that would increase the monthly surcharge on most telephone bills by 3%, in part to raise money to compensate emergency departments and trauma centers that treat the uninsured (Jablon, AP/Contra Costa Times, 10/27).
Additional information on Proposition 67 is available online.