UChicago Medical Center Announces Plan to Expand the Age Limit for Pediatric Trauma Care

The University of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC) announced in early December its plans to raise the upper age limit of its pediatric trauma center to include 16- and 17-year-olds. The announcement follows on the heels of UCMC’s decision to increase the age limit for pediatric emergency care to children younger than 18. Organizers and activists from the Trauma Center Coalition (TCC), a group of organizations working to expand trauma center coverage on the South Side, welcomed the announcement as a victory of the campaign. Here are the top three things to know about the policy expansion:

1. UCMC must still obtain permission from the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) to increase the age limit for pediatric trauma care.

The Illinois Emergency Medical Services and Trauma Center Code defines the age of pediatric trauma patients as birth to 15 years and 364 days, and UCMC follows this standard. But in a letter from the IDPH to Southside Together Organizing for Power (STOP), a member of the TCC, the IDPH states that if a pediatric trauma center wanted to voluntarily increase the age limit, “the EMS administrative code would not restrict the upper age limit of a pediatric trauma center at 15 years.”

2. The actions surrounding trauma care will affect a substantial number of children on the South Side.

The trauma center age increase will affect approximately 120 children per year, while the age increase for emergency pediatric care is expected to affect approximately 1,500 children per year. In the UCMC statement, President Sharon O’Keefe announced plans to hire additional physicians and staff in order to accommodate the new patients. The completed expansion is expected within a year.

3. Proponents for an adult trauma center are heralding the expansion as a victory and one that comes at a critical time in the national discourse.

According to Veronica Morris-Moore, a TCC staff organizer and a member of Fearless Leading by the Youth (FLY), the announcement comes at a critical time when the nation is engulfed in conversations “around black life and anti-blackness, and what that means and looks like.” She also called the victory “therapeutic and healing.” The group has campaigned for a Level One adult trauma center on the South Side since 2010, when 18-year-old Damian Turner was shot just steps away from the University but had to be taken across the city to Northwestern Memorial Hospital where he died. The Chicago Tribune reported in August that gunshot victims in some South Side neighborhoods must travel ten miles or more for treatment, which can sometimes be the difference between life and death.

Feature Photo: cc/(Adam Fagan)