Phoenix Children’s Hospital – the state’s leading provider of sub-specialty medical care for children – opened Arizona’s only Level 1 Trauma Center exclusively for children on July 21, 2008. The Hospital accepts injured children 14 years and younger from Emergency Medical Services/scene-of-injury and referral facilities.

The need for a children’s-only trauma facility is immense: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, unintentional injuries are the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 1 and 44. In Arizona, unintentional injures kill more children between 1 and 14 years of age than any other cause.

The program represents a significant financial investment for Phoenix Children’s. The estimated cost for the Trauma Center is approximately $7 million a year. The program also represents a significant commitment by Phoenix Children’s physicians. The program’s nine trauma surgeons are all fellowship-trained pediatric surgeons from Pediatric Surgeons of Phoenix. Valley Anesthesia Consultants has committed to providing 24-7 in-house trauma anesthesia coverage. The Hospital has also arranged subspecialty surgical coverage from a wide range of specialists including pediatric orthopedists, pediatric ophthalmologists, pediatric maxillofacial plastic surgeons, pediatric neurosurgeons, and hand specialists with extensive pediatric training.

Phoenix Children’s has joined the Valley's small trauma network; of the six state-designated trauma centers in Phoenix, only St. Joseph’s and Maricopa Medical Center also take pediatric trauma cases.

The Phoenix Children’s Trauma Center is under the medical direction of David Notrica, MD. For more information, please contact Trauma Center Program Director Deb Brown, RN, BSN, MHA, at (602) 546-1375.

For more information, please visit http//www.phoenixchildrens.com/medical-specialties/trauma-center