The Florida Department of Health (FDOH) recently announced that Wolfson Children’s Hospital of Jacksonville is only state-designated Pediatric Trauma Referral Center in Northeast Florida. The designation officially began July 1, 2018, and continues through June 30, 2025 (Wolfson Children’s will need to reapply for the designation before the 2025 date).

The FDOH named Wolfson Children’s Hospital a provisional Pediatric Trauma Referral Center in December 2017. It is the only hospital with a Pediatric Trauma Referral Center designation in the Northeast Florida area. The hospital’s goal with this new designation is to continue to provide comprehensive, high-level care to the most critically injured children when they need it most.

“The process of earning the status of Pediatric Trauma Referral Center has not been easy. It involved a lot of work, patience and persistence,” said Michael D. Aubin, Wolfson Children’s Hospital president. “Physicians with Nemours Children’s Specialty Care, Jacksonville, the UF College of Medicine – Jacksonville, and Emergency Resources Group, along with Wolfson Children’s Hospital and Baptist Health team members representing all disciplines and departments, have invested their time and talent in earning this designation. We have been providing lifesaving trauma care for many years, and our highly skilled team will continue to make a positive impact in our region as a Pediatric Trauma Referral Center.”

Pediatric Trauma Referral Centers such as Wolfson Children’s must meet stringent standards of care set forth by the state, including having the following elements in place:

• A board-certified pediatric general surgeon or general surgeon who is on call and promptly available 24/7
• An anesthesiologist who is on-site and available at a moment’s notice for trauma patient care 24 hours a day
• A physician credentialed by the hospital to provide care in the intensive care unit or emergency department who is on-site and available to respond immediately to the post-anesthesia recovery area for care of pediatric trauma patients 24 hours a day
• A board-certified pediatric neurosurgeon who is on-call and arrives promptly to provide trauma coverage 24/7 at the pediatric trauma center
• The following specialists are on-call and arrive promptly when needed:
• Cardiac surgery
• Hand surgery
• Ophthalmic surgery
• Oral/maxillofacial surgery
• Orthopedic surgery
• Otorhinolaryngologic surgery
• Plastic surgery
• Thoracic surgery
• Urologic surgery
• Trauma resuscitation registered nurses in the hospital’s emergency department 24/7
• An adequately staffed and equipped emergency department, trauma resuscitation area and intensive care unit, and operating room, post-anesthesia recovery area and medical/surgical unit immediately available for pediatric trauma patients 24/7

Wolfson Children’s trauma transport fleet includes one fixed-wing aircraft, two air ambulance helicopters and three Kids Kare Mobile ICUs.