Craven County trauma care is the Pitts

That's not to say that Craven Regional Medical Center, New Bern's 313-bed hospital, provides substandard emergency treatment. To the contrary, health care and EMS professionals countywide have lauded CRMC's standard of care.

The problem is that Craven County trauma patients will probably never see the inside of their own hospital, because emergency first responders -- following established protocol -- dispatch EastCare helicopters to airlift patients to Pitt County Memorial Hospital in Greenville.

Pitt Memorial is a Level I trauma center -- the state's highest designation -- due in part to the hospital's affiliation with East Carolina University's Brody School of Medicine. CRMC has no trauma center designation, but hospital spokesman Megan McGarvey told the Independent Register this week that the hospital's level of care is about equivalent with that of a Level III trauma center -- the lowest designation.

Does the local hospital have any plans to apply for trauma center designation, and in doing so, greatly reduce the number of trauma patients airlifted needlessly to Pitt?

Read the Dec. 6 issue of the Independent Register to find out more about this intriguing and complex issue facing Craven Regional Medical Center in our front-page special report, "Airlifted. Treated. Released."