Our Services

CHRISTUS Trauma Center

CHRISTUS Hospital-St. Elizabeth and St. Mary have the only certified trauma centers in Southeast Texas. St. Elizabeth has been certified as a Level III Trauma Center since 1997; St. Mary was designated as a Level IV Trauma Center in 2006.

A Level III Trauma Center has resources for the emergency resuscitation, surgery and intensive care of most trauma patients and has transfer agreements with Level I and/or Level II trauma centers that provide back-up resources for the care of exceptionally severe injuries. A Level IV trauma center provides the stabilization and treatment of severely injured patients in areas where no alternative care is available.

In an accident where multiple injuries occur, certified trauma care can mean the difference between life and death.

Rapid response is not the only critical factor in trauma care. Trauma patients require access to organized quality medical care and leading technology 24 hours a day.

Members of the CHRISTUS Trauma Team are responsible to ensure that appropriate care is provided from the time the patient arrives through until discharge.

Last year, CHRISTUS Hospital-St. Elizabeth and St. Mary had more than 74,000 emergency department visits with 1,144 resulting in a trauma admission:

• 83 percent were blunt trauma injuries (contusions, abrasions, lacerations and/or bone fractures caused by impact, injury or physical attack)
  
• 17 percent were penetrating trauma injuries (an injury that occurs primarily by an object, such as a bullet or knife, piercing the skin or entering a tissue of the body)
  Trauma patients at CHRISTUS Hospital receive immediate access to specialists from a wide range of disciplines, including:
  
• Trauma and emergency surgery
  
• Emergency medicine
  
• Orthopaedic surgery
  
• Neurosurgery
  
• Spine surgery
  
• Vascular surgery
  
• Interventional radiology
  
• Comprehensive rehabilitation

Trauma Services Team members include:

• Trauma Surgeon
  
• Emergency Room Physician
  
• Radiologist
  
• Surgical Residents
  
• Nurses from the Emergency Room and Critical Care Unit
  
• Operating Room
  
• Technicians from Lab, X-ray and Operating Room
  
• Chaplain and others

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Convenient, free parking is available at all CHRISTUS Hospital—St. Elizabeth and St. Mary locations, and complimentary valet parking is available at St. Elizabeth's main entrance.