Message from the President and CEO
Autumn 2008

This message features bi-annual commentary from Frances Sheehan. We welcome your feedback and encourage you to email comments to info@brandywinefoundation.org.

County Trauma Center, Coatesville Youth Initiative:
Insurance Policies for the Future

Have you ever passed the scene of a serious auto accident and wondered where the victims will be taken and how long it will take to get there? Most people would assume such victims would be taken to a certified trauma center at a Chester County hospital as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, since the trauma center at Brandywine Hospital closed primarily for financial reasons in mid-2002, Chester County residents involved in serious falls or car accidents have to be taken outside of the county. That transportation takes, on average, 70 to 75 minutes, well-above the long-established benchmark of 60 minutes – the so-called “Golden Hour” for most effective treatment. That’s also 15 to 20 minutes longer than in our surrounding Southeast Pennsylvania counties.

Chester County is the most populous county in the state, and the only one in Southeastern Pennsylvania, without a certified trauma center. Nearly 5,700 times a year, a 17 percent increase in five years, our EMS personnel do a terrific job stabilizing and treating seriously injured patients en route to out-of-county trauma centers. Meanwhile, to try to trim the time gap for the most seriously injured, expensive helicopter transports have increased 450 percent, from 120 in 2001 to 660 in 2006.

But as our population continues to increase, the need for trauma care and the increasing traffic that often makes road transportation difficult – and even increases the chances that ambulances and their accident victims will get involved in motor vehicle accidents en route – will continue to increase. The currently long drive times not only delay needed care but mean ambulances are out of service and unavailable to other emergency victims for longer periods of time.

For all of these reasons, the Brandywine Health Foundation is a strong supporter of the Chester County Trauma Center Initiative (www.cctrauma.org). The initiative is currently raising awareness amongst county residents while exploring the feasibility of re-establishing a certified Level II trauma center at either Brandywine Hospital, The Chester County Hospital or Paoli Hospital.

Unfortunately, estimated annual operating losses range between $5 million and $8 million. One possible funding source could be a dedicated county tax. No one likes more taxes, but you might view it as an insurance policy to cover you in case you do need such critical, swift care. “What is more important than our health or our life?,” wonders John Felicetti, president of Emergency Medical Services for Chester County and a member of the Chester County Trauma Services Task Force that is promoting the initiative.

The foundation also views the Coatesville Youth Development Initiative as sort of an insurance policy – an insurance policy to help guarantee that our local youths succeed and thrive in the face of formidable challenges while helping them avoid becoming victims of violence who need EMS transport.

Thanks to generous gifts from the William Penn Foundation, ArcelorMittal and the United Way of Chester County, we’ve put together a terrific team of consultants and an impressive, ever-growing steering committee comprised of representatives from several dozen organizations already targeting youths in the Coatesville area. They all share one of the foundation’s key priorities: helping the hardest-to-reach young people in our community succeed in life.

A strategic planning process currently underway to identify our youths’ actual needs will culminate next year in a better coordinated collaboration that will give our young people the tools, resources and programs they most need.

To paraphrase John Felicetti, what is more important than the future of our youth?