16 percent of seriously injured gunshot victims not treated at trauma centers, study says

Nearly one-sixth of Cook County gunshot victims suffering serious injuries were not treated at trauma centers, according to a study by the University of Illinois at Chicago. But some local emergency medical services directors say the study is misleading.

Lee Friedman, associate professor of environmental and occupational health sciences at UIC School of Public Health and one of the authors of the paper published in JAMA Surgery, found that the majority of patients who needed to be treated at a trauma unit ended up there, but about 16 percent were treated at community hospitals.

“On a local level on the West and South side of Cook County, there’s a lot of room for improvement, and the main thing is in southern Cook County,” Friedman said…Please click here to read Grace Wong’s story in the Tribune.