When Emergency Medical Services (EMS) professionals rush through the doors of Banner North Colorado Medical Center (NCMC) in Greeley, their first stop is the trauma room. As part of NCMC’s emergency department, designated as a level II trauma center, this room sees the hospital’s most critical patients. To help provide exceptional care for those most in need, Banner Health has recently completed a $1 million remodel of the trauma room.
Now, with more space, more lighting, and upgraded equipment, including rolling cabinets, blanket warmers, and fluid warmers, the NCMC trauma room is better equipped to support ease of access to equipment, adaptability of room use, improved patient comfort, and overall efficiency. After one year of planning and four months of construction, the project was completed last week. Banner partnered with Whiting-Turner out of Fort Collins, Colo. for construction services.
“NCMC is the only level II trauma center in Greeley,” Eric Luehr, MD, trauma medical director at NCMC, said. “We serve the entire eastern plains of Colorado as well as Wyoming, Nebraska, and parts of Kansas. We have seen an increase in critical trauma volume and varying types of patients that, with a well-equipped trauma room and high level of specialized care, we are proud to care for comfortably here without the need to transfer.”
According to the American College of Surgeons, a level II trauma center is expected to provide initial definitive trauma care for a wide range of injuries and injury severity and may take on additional responsibilities in the region related to education, system leadership, and disaster planning. A level II trauma center can provide:
- Immediate, 24-hour coverage from general surgeons as well as specialties, including orthopedic surgery, neurosurgery, anesthesiology, emergency medicine, radiology and critical care.
- Tertiary care needs such as cardiac surgery.
- Trauma prevention and continuing education programs for staff.
- Comprehensive quality assessment program.
Lower-level trauma centers in the region, including the UCHealth Greeley Hospital in East Greeley, Banner McKee Medical Center in Loveland, Banner Fort Collins Medical Center in Fort Collins, Sterling Regional MedCenter in Sterling, and the East Morgan County Hospital in Brush, all refer higher-level trauma cases to NCMC.
“Our improved trauma room will function really well to provide our team with a better space to care for our community,” Dr. Luehr said. “We have nearly 70 employees in our emergency department, but we also partner
with specialists throughout the Banner network for a multidisciplinary approach. There are various needs we must address to continue to be a high-functioning, tertiary trauma center and provide optimal trauma care, and these improvements will help support that effort.”
About Banner North Colorado Medical Center
Banner North Colorado Medical Center is a fully accredited, private, nonprofit facility licensed in Greeley, Colorado, owned by Banner Health, a nonprofit healthcare system with 33 hospitals in six states. It serves as a regional medical center offering a comprehensive scope of community-based and specialty health care services for an area including southern Wyoming, western Nebraska, western Kansas and northeastern Colorado. It offers Emergency care, cancer care, heart care, orthopedics, inpatient and outpatient surgery, obstetrics, pediatrics, rehabilitation, intensive care, lab and medical imaging, and medical air transport. For more information, visit bannerhealth.com/ncmc.