SALINAS, CA, January 5, 2015 – Natividad Medical Center announced it has received designation as Monterey County’s Level II Trauma Center by the Monterey County Emergency Medical Services Agency. “The designation of the Trauma Center at Natividad Medical Center will benefit trauma patients and their family members and improve the overall quality of health care in our community,” said Kelly O’Keefe, MD, Interim Chief Executive Officer of Natividad Medical Center. “As an acute care hospital, for the past 128 years, we have made an organizational commitment to the people of our community to provide safe, effective, accessible, and quality health care. We continue this commitment with this designation as a Level II Trauma Center providing a vital community service locally that saves lives and eliminates the need to fly critically injured patients to a distant trauma center.”

A Trauma Center is a specialized hospital that is distinguished by the immediate availability of specialized personnel, equipment, and services to treat the most severe and critical injuries. Today’s designation of Natividad Medical Center as the Level II Trauma Center for Monterey County is the culmination of a robust planning effort over the past 2 ½ years by a multidisciplinary team of physicians, nurses, technicians, and hospital management that engaged in quality improvement activities to enhance trauma care services at Natividad. Notable achievements have been the

• Appointment of a trauma leadership team
• Hiring of fellowship trained critical-care trauma surgeons, neurosurgeons, and nurse practitioners,
• Facility, equipment, and system improvements to elevate trauma care in multiple departments
• Expansion of imaging services
• Extensive staff education and training on trauma care and
• Development of trauma prevention programming for the community.

The successful results of multiple surveys by trauma care experts attest to Natividad’s capabilities to provide high quality trauma care. The final review of compliance with trauma care standards in December, 2014 confirmed Natividad’s readiness for designation.

About Natividad Medical Center (NMC)
Owned and operated by Monterey County, NMC is a 172-bed, acute-care hospital providing health care services to county residents for more than 128 years. Based in Salinas, California, NMC offers inpatient, outpatient, emergency, diagnostic and specialty medical care. NMC provides more than 34,000 patient days of care each year and has more than 47,000 emergency department visits per year. NMC is ranked No. 1 in newborn deliveries in Monterey County and is the only teaching hospital on the Central Coast through its affiliation with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). With a medical staff of more than 228 physicians, NMC’s mission is to continually monitor and improve the health of the people, including the vulnerable, in Monterey County through coordinated, affordable high-quality health care. For more information, please call 831-755-4111 or visit www.natividad.com.

Media Contact: Marci Bracco Cain (831) 747-7455