CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Charleston Area Medical Center has taken another step to ensure it never again loses its Level 1 trauma status.
CAMC introduced two new full-time orthopedic trauma specialists - Drs. Shawn Storm and Aaron Sop - to hospital staff Thursday.
Storm and Sop recently joined CAMC's Orthopedic Trauma Group - now a three-doctor team - which started in 2007. The trauma specialists fix fractured bones and shattered pelvises of patients seriously injured by falls and motor-vehicle accidents.
"I knew they had had a history and lost their Level 1 trauma in the past, so I wanted to play a role in helping them keep that status," said Storm, who trained in orthopedic trauma at Cooper University Hospital in Camden, N.J., before coming to CAMC. "We're trauma guys by training, trauma guys by choice."
Six years ago, the state revoked CAMC's Level 1 trauma status - the top grade for trauma certification - because not enough bone surgeons were available to take emergency calls at the hospital. Patients with serious injuries were rushed to Morgantown and Huntington at the time.
CAMC, with help from Gov. Bob Wise, regained its Level 1 status a month later. The hospital has maintained that designation ever since.
For the past year, CAMC's Orthopedic Trauma Group has used temporary doctors - all with military backgrounds and experience in trauma - to fill in until full-time specialists were found.
"There's more continuity of care with us here full time, and patients like that," said Sop, who trained at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center before coming to CAMC. "You get to know your patients, and they like to see the same doctor every time."
CAMC General Hospital has one of only two Level 1 trauma centers in West Virginia. The other is the Jon Michael Moore Trauma Center at West Virginia University Hospitals in Morgantown.
To receive Level 1 status, hospitals must have a trauma surgeon, emergency doctor, neurosurgeon, anesthesiologist and orthopedic surgeon available immediately day and night.
It's easy to follow the top stories with home delivery of The Charleston Gazette.
- Most Popular
- Most Commented
- A deathbed wish fulfilled
- Skull found at W.Va. construction site
- Fourth of July festival organizers fear violence
- Obituaries for 2009-07-04
- Big kids only: Teenagers wanted a place to call their own
- Cross Lanes firm got $200,000 no-bid contract with osteopathic school
- WVU recruit helps team pick up win
- 'Mountain State' no more? Opponents of surface mining hold naming contest (10 Comments)
- Feds: DEP does not properly oversee mining flood prevention (10 Comments)
- Fourth of July festival organizers fear violence (9 Comments)
- New prisons, shorter sentences recommended to reduce Corrections system overcrowding (7 Comments)
- Carte Goodwin may run for Congress (7 Comments)
- Hate crime (7 Comments)
- McDowell delegate vows to stop traffic to protest tolls (7 Comments)



Post a comment