New Trauma Center Opens In East Valley

By Andrew Romanov
Published: Monday, March 24, 2014 - 5:34pm
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(Photo courtesy of Chandler Regional Medical Center Facebook Account)
Dignity Health Chandler Regional Medical Center.

A new trauma center opened Monday at Chandler Regional Medical Center. It is a Level 1 center, so it is reserved for cases of severe trauma.

The new center at Chandler Regional is the first Level 1 center to open in the East Valley. There are five Level 1 trauma centers in central Phoenix and one in Scottsdale.

Daniel Didier is the trauma development section chief for the Arizona Department of Health Services. He said it is important to balance trauma coverage as the Valley grows.

"We look at the city and the growth within the Valley that’s taken place in the last decade. We’ve had a tremendous amount of growth in the East Valley as well as the West, and it's starting to push up into the North now," said Didier. "So I think when you start to look at the system as a whole, yes. When you start to have greater population, then you have to take into consideration, too, on having availability of services to those communities as they continue to grow and then also to forecast for the future as well."

Meanwhile, West Valley Hospital in Goodyear is applying to open their own Level 1 trauma center. That would make it the only one in the West Valley.

Didier said West Valley Hospital has not officially started their application process yet.