The Importance of a Level One Trauma Center

A lot of patients who are driven to the trauma center will actually arrive there faster than the ones who go by helicopter. I've been on multiple scenes where an ambulance has left the scene to drive to the hospital with their patient and a helicopter was called to the same incident for another patient. The ground transport unit reached the trauma center before the helicopter. A level two trauma center is not the appropriate destination for pediatric trauma patient. If possible, if they can stabilize them at a level two, they're going to end up shipping them to a level one.