NBC Bay Area verified Wednesday that the Regional Medical Center of San Jose is shutting its trauma center solutions later on this year.

The health center claims it’s due to the fact that not a great deal of individuals are utilizing it.

The information came as a shock for Melissa Gong, a registered nurse at Regional Medical Center as she thinks shedding the trauma center will certainly influence individuals’s lives. She claimed she learnt about the information in an e-mail Tuesday early morning.

“If there is a major accident on Highway 101 or Interstate 280, we are the trauma center that patients are going to come to,” she claimed.

But after Aug. 12, individuals might have to look somewhere else. The closest trauma facilities go to Santa Clara Valley Medical and Stanford.

“Bay Area traffic, we know how it is. So, this could present a delay in care for some of our patients. It could be life or death,” Gong claimed.

The health center additionally revealed it will certainly close its STEMI program.

“So, a STEMI is a ‘ST-Elevation M.I.,'” Gong said. “These are basically patients who are having active heart attacks. And these are the patients when they come in, we rush them to the cath lab,” Gong claimed.

The health center claimed it’s choice to shuts both the trauma center and the STEMI program is due to the fact that the variety of individuals requiring those solutions has actually gotten on the decrease for numerous years.

On the increase are the variety of individuals entering the Emergency Room.

Big adjustments coming to a healthcare facility lots of in East San Jose depend upon which have actually many individuals worried.

“The patient population that we serve at Regional, it really caters to a certain population in East San Jose. These are patients with low literacy levels, low access to care and difficulty trusting healthcare professionals,” Gong claimed. “We are going to be fighting like hell to keep these services open to our patients.”

Regional Medical Center speaker launched the complying with declaration to NBC Bay Area on Wednesday evening:

“Regional Medical Center offers high-grade health care and enhances human life, happily offering the higher Santa Clara County neighborhood as an important health and wellness companion. We continually assess exactly how we can best offer our neighborhood, based upon the medical requirements of our individuals and the offered health care sources in our neighborhood to make sure that we can guarantee a lasting future.

After a strenuous analysis, the requirement for our emergency situation solutions has actually expanded past our present ability. Because of that we will certainly spend $10 million this year to broaden our Emergency Department raising ability to 63 from 43 beds. In enhancement, we have actually made the tough choice to close our Trauma Center and STEMI programs. We’ll be collaborating with the region to shift from detailed stroke to a main stroke offering. This starts a procedure with called for notices and application of a phased functional strategy with last closure days to be figured out later on.

We are let down that we can no more give all the solutions that we had. We totally comprehend the influence these adjustments might have, yet they enable us to maintain treatment that straightens with the requirements of our higher Santa Clara County neighborhood today and for the future.

We are functioning very closely with all doctor, first-responders and regulative leaders to guarantee a smooth shift which our neighborhood obtains the treatment it requires. To be clear, we continue to be main stroke all set. Like lots of Emergency Departments, we will certainly triage, give treatment and maintain for transfer those stroll-in individuals with trauma, STEMI and stroke-related health care requirements.”

San Jose city councilman Peter Ortiz additionally launched the complying with declaration Wednesday:

“The choice to close the Trauma Unit comes as a shock, seeing that Regional Medical is renowned for its solution to trauma sufferers. For me, it’s additionally individual as the Trauma Unit acted promptly in the past to conserve the lives of both of my bros, and my mommy this previous year by coming to her help as she endured a cardiovascular disease. People like my mother would certainly never ever have had a 2nd possibility.

I have deep issues concerning exactly how this will certainly influence the citizens of East San José, as a lot of our citizens have persistent health and wellness problems like diabetes mellitus and hypertension and similarly battle to acquire health and wellness insurance coverage.

I look ahead to collaborating with management at Regional Medical, health center monitoring, influenced team, and area citizens on a favorable course ahead that focuses on the health of our East Side family members.”