MONROE, LA (AP) — University Health Conway is working on plans to create the first accredited trauma center in northeast Louisiana.
The hospital in Monroe is just beginning talks about the project, Dr. Lester Wayne Johnson, Conway's chief of surgery and dean of rural health initiatives, told The News-Star’s Scott Rogers.
He said it would work with the University Health System's Level 1 trauma center in Shreveport.
Dr. John Owings, the Shreveport hospital's trauma medical director, was in Monroe on Friday to give an eight-hour class on trauma assessment to emergency workers from throughout northeast Louisiana.
The state has four trauma centers: University Health Shreveport, Charity Hospital in New Orleans, Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge and Rapides Regional Medical Center in Alexandria.
Going northwest to southeast, there's a trauma center within 100 miles in any direction, Owings said, but there's a void in the northeast-to-southwest corridor.
Trauma training for local first responders will continue throughout the year, Johnson said.
