McALLEN — One of the Rio Grande Valley’s largest hospital systems celebrated a new milestone Thursday.
STHS McAllen, the 441-bed hospital located just off of Expressway 83, recently became the second hospital in the Valley to earn a Level I trauma center designation by the Texas Department of State Health Services.
It was a designation years in the making, according to hospital officials.
That designation is the highest a hospital can achieve and means that it is equipped to handle the worst emergency medical crises a patient can face.
“There were insurmountable challenges that we could not figure out how to get this done to achieve this,” STHS CEO Todd Mann said during a celebration held in front of the hospital Thursday morning.
He credited the dedicated work of Dr. Carlos H. Palacio, the director of research for the hospital’s trauma program, for coming up with innovative solutions to help STHS earn the designation.
“Dr. Palacio single-handedly came to me with solutions on how to get there. They were out-of-the-box. They weren’t typical, but his drive and determination got us there,” Mann said before adding additional thanks to the doctors, surgeons and others who staff the trauma center.
Of the more than 520 hospitals in Texas, just 21 of them have that highest designation, Mann said.
The trauma center includes 20 treatment bays, six trauma rooms and 24-hour accessibility to general and specialty surgeons, including orthopedic, internal medicine, plastic and neurosurgeons, according to Tom Castañeda, director of marketing and public relations for STHS.
The hospital’s journey began after earning a Level II trauma center designation in February 2019. Officials then worked steadily to meet the state criteria needed to achieve a Level 1 designation.
“In order to become a Level I trauma center, a facility must meet admission volume performance requirements, such as admitting 1,200 trauma patients yearly,” Castañeda said.
STHS McAllen has met or exceeded that criteria every year since 2019, he said.
The Level I trauma center is just a part of a larger network of emergent medical care facilities dubbed the South Texas Health System Trauma and Critical Care Institute.
The institute includes the Level I trauma center in McAllen, as well as a Level IV trauma center at STHS Edinburg’s enhanced emergency department, the STHS Heart in McAllen, the Valley’s sole dedicated pediatric ER and six free-standing emergency rooms.
Hidalgo County Judge Richard F. Cortez, who was one of several local leaders on hand at the celebration, called STHS’s achievement “a big deal.”
“This is really a time to celebrate,” Cortez said, especially as the Valley’s population continues to grow.
