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SSM DePaul Health Center has earned a Level II trauma status for another five years. The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services made the recommendation after sending a review team to DePaul last November to conduct a thorough assessment of our trauma services. That means DePaul will continue as the only Level II trauma center in North St. Louis County.

The team’s final report outlined a number of strengths found at DePaul, including a strong commitment by the hospital, medical staff and the local community to keeping DePaul a Level II trauma center. The report also listed as strengths DePaul’s “excellent in house ICU coverage”, “strong nursing education in trauma” and “the new trauma medical director, Dr. Andrew Karanas”.

“We are very pleased that the review team recognized our commitment to this community and to providing exceptional trauma services,” said Karanas.

SSM DePaul is in the midst of a $10.3 million emergency department expansion and renovation project. SSM Health Care will contribute $7.3 million and the DePaul Foundation has launched its first-ever capital campaign to help raise the rest.

Located at the high traffic cross-section of I-270 and I-70, DePaul’s emergency department already serves more than 50,000 patients – and this number is expected to increase by 33-percent. This expansion will allow DePaul to double the capacity of its emergency and trauma departments and purchase the latest diagnostic technologies including a new 64-slice CT (computed tomography) scanner.

The ED has been kept fully operational during the construction period. The entire project should be completed in May of 2008, improving patient flow and decreasing patient wait times.

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