UnityPoint Health - Trinity Muscatine - Emergency Department

Emergency and Trauma Services

In an effort to provide the highest level of care for critically injured patients in western Illinois and eastern Iowa, a trauma program has been coordinated between Trinity's four hospital campuses, and city and county emergency services to ensure a rapid response for the delivery of care to injured patients.

The Trauma Service recognizes trauma as a surgical disease requiring speed in field assessment and transportation, identification of injuries, stabilization in the emergency department and surgical intervention to ensure the best possible patient outcome.

Trinity is committed to the provision of optimal trauma care along with the development of its Trauma Service and the implementation of a comprehensive hospital wide trauma care program consistent with the trauma center rules and regulations established by the Department of Public Health.

Trinity Muscatine campus is verified as a Level IV Trauma Center in the state of Iowa.

What is a Trauma Center?

Based in a hospital, a trauma center has dedicated considerable time, equipment and facilities to the care of severely injured patients. Nurses, physicians and ancillary hospital personnel are highly skilled and trained in the emergency and trauma treatment of these patients. The pre-hospital trauma system in our community also plays an important role in the transport of these critically injured patients. The goal is to get the right patient to the right place at the right time. Even though the quality of care is expected to be similar throughout all levels of trauma care, the severity and the volume of injured patients is higher at a Level II Trauma Center.

The trauma team at Trinity is multi-disciplinary and includes:

• Emergency department physicians
• General/Trauma surgeons
• Trauma trained nurses
• Pediatric nurses
• Critical care nurses
• Laboratory
• Radiology
• Respiratory therapy
• Pastoral care
• Social services and case management
• Surgery/PACU/anesthesia
• Rehab
• Security

Know Before You Go

In an EMERGENCY, call 911 or go to a hospital-based Emergency Department (ED) like UnityPoint Health - Trinity to receive lifesaving care. Hospital-based emergency rooms like Trinity Muscatine are different than freestanding ED's because hospitals are equipped with more resources necessary to quickly save a life when minutes matter. A hospital offers services like heart catheterization labs to open blocked heart arteries faster and operating rooms for procedures that can't wait.

People who choose a freestanding ED that's not attached to a hospital may be charged just as much as a hospital-based ED visit and may also have to be transferred by ambulance to a hospital in order to receive a higher level of care. For more serious or complex issues like a heart attack or stroke, a hospital-based ED is a better choice. Trinity Muscatine has been honored for top heart and stroke care. Also, an ambulance transfer from a free-standing ED may or may not be covered by insurance based on the situation and the hospital you choose to go to.