The National Academies of Science recently highlighted the partnership between University Hospital and Brooke Army Medical Center in a 2016 report, noting that BAMC’s “verification as a Level I trauma center and its integration into the regional civilian trauma system enables military physicians, nurses, and medics to attain and sustain expertise in trauma care and to interact, conduct research, and collaborate with civilian trauma care providers.” (Source: National Trauma Care System: Integrating Military and Civilian Trauma Systems to Achieve Zero Preventable Deaths after Injury, NAS, 2016)
The partnership between the two Level I adult trauma centers in our region, University Hospital and Brooke Army Medical center, or BAMC, is unique in the nation — a partnership that has saved or restored countless lives over the decades. Together they care for those with life-threatening injuries throughout the vast, 22-county Trauma Region P, in collaboration with the Southwest Texas Regional Advisory Council, its member hospitals and EMS organizations. In 2016, BAMC cared for 4,127 adult trauma patients and 750 adult burn patients — 85 percent of them civilians. To maintain Level I status, a trauma center must treat a high volume of trauma patients. BAMC is able to achieve this volume in part by treating civilians from within the Trauma Service Area. BAMC is the only Level I traum The partnership between the two Level I adult trauma centers in our region, University Hospital and Brooke Army Medical Center, or BAMC, is unique in the nation — a partnership that has saved or restored countless lives over the decades. Together they care for those with life-threatening injuries throughout the vast, 22-county Trauma Region P, in collaboration with the Southwest Texas Regional Advisory Council, its member hospitals and EMS organizations. In 2016, BAMC cared for 4,127 adult trauma patients and 750 adult burn patients — 85 percent of them civilians. To maintain Level I status, a trauma center must treat a high volume of trauma patients. BAMC is able to achieve this volume in part by treating civilians from within the Trauma Service Area. BAMC is the only Level I trauma center operated by the military. Not only is BAMC’s trauma mission central to all combat casualty training in our Armed Forces, but its surgeons and research staff — often in collaboration with those at University Hospital and UT Health San Antonio — develop new and better treatments and systems of care that save lives on the battlefield and back home in the United States.