JACKSON, MS – Mississippi officials are hopeful that the state’s trauma care registry is “back, alive and growing” following passage of a bill aimed at improving participation in and funding for the registry.

Gov. Haley Barbour signed House Bill 1405 into law last year, requiring all licensed hospitals in Mississippi to submit trauma data to the state’s registry beginning earlier this year.

Jim Craig, director of Mississippi Health Protection at the Mississippi State Department of Health, said that out of 86 hospitals in the state, 16 have yet to submit data. He said the Department of Health has notified those hospitals of their missing data, and if they don’t submit data within a month they will have to attend a hearing mandated by the state.

“We anticipate everyone submitting their data,” said Liz Sharlot, communications director at the Department of Health.  “We are not worried and honestly feel there is no danger of these hospitals losing their licenses.”

Craig said some hospitals may have had trouble submitting data due to staff turnover, ongoing network problems or trouble with the new software, called Collector.

“I don’t know of any (hospitals) that are resisting. They are just struggling to get there,” said Hugh Gamble, MD, FACS, who served on the state’s task force to review the trauma system in 2007.

The new law includes a ‘pay or play’ condition, which allows hospitals to choose the trauma level at which they would like to participate – though the state ultimately decides at what level a hospital is capable of functioning. If a hospital chooses to participate at a lower level than that defined by the state, it can opt out of the program by paying up to $1.5 million.

Hospitals and physicians choosing to participate in the program will receive money from the state based on the amount of uncompensated trauma care delivered to patients and the technology required for the registry.

The trauma program is funded by several sources, including moving violation fines, motor vehicle registration fees and point of sale taxes paid on motorcycles and four-wheelers. 

According to Craig, four hospitals have opted to pay their way out of the program: St. Dominic’s Hospital and Mississippi Baptist Hospital, both in Jackson, River Oaks Hospital in Flowood and Northwest Regional Medical Center in Clarksdale.

Craig said Biloxi Regional Hospital has chosen to both pay and participate in the program. The hospital has designated itself as a Level III trauma center and will pay the difference between that level and Level II assessment levied by the state.

Gamble said some hospitals have difficulty providing trauma care. “A hospital that wants to insulate its medical staff from trauma care may choose not to play,” he said.

Mississippi saw a decline in its trauma care registry between 2003 and 2007, during which time hospitals voluntarily submitted data. Part of the reason for that decline was a lack of funding. Craig said the registry has been growing since then, thanks to an increase in funding for trauma care centers from $3 million a year to more than $20 million.

“The system seems to be back alive and growing,” he said. n
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