Bay Medical staff get the chance to show off the hospitals trauma center wednesday.
Earlier this week the Florida health department approved the hospital as a level two trauma center that will cover Bay, Gulf, Washington and Holmes counties.
That means the hospital can now handle severe injuries such as gun shot wounds, ejection from a vehicle, multiple fractures, spinal cord injuries and falls
The trauma medical director, Dr. Glenn Summers says "It's a big step for us.. It shows that we met the standards that the state has created to in order to be a trauma center... It's a very, very, long process, a very exacting process."
For the hospital to quality as a trauma center, trauma surgeons, neurosurgeons, and multiple surgical and non-surgical specialists have to be available within 30 minutes or less, 24 hours a day.
The hospital also has to have the right equipment in place and the facilities needed for immediate treatment on through rehab.
Vice President of Professional Lancery services Rick Smith says "Trauma centers are proven to have much better outcomes because you focus on the details quite honestly."
"We look at turn around times for our diagnostics. We've looked at transport times for our patients and those are things that typically can get missed in a regular e.r."
Dr. Summers says the qualification included thousands of hours of training for the staff and medical staff that that will provide better outcomes for patients.
"We have the facilities in place the personnel in place, the training in place to take care of you if you get hurt.. we are the go to place in terms of taking care of the patients."
Bay Medical is the only trauma center between Pensacola and Tallahassee in
Northwest Florida and is one of 28 in the entire state.