When Equality Is Not Equity: The Ethics of Access to Trauma Care: A Surgical Perspective

The purpose of this surgical perspective is to describe the trauma care needs of the South Side of Chicago and the creation of an adult trauma center at the University of Chicago Medicine and associated hospital-based violence intervention program.

Traumatic injury is a leading cause of death and disability in the United States. Disparities across the continuum of trauma care exist, which are often rooted in the social determinants of health. Trauma center distribution is critical to timely treatment and should be based on the trauma needs of the area. The previous trauma ecosystem of Chicago was incongruent with the concentration of violent injuries on the south and west sides of the city, leading to a fallacy of distributive justice.

A descriptive analysis of community partners, trauma program leadership, trauma surgeons, and the violence intervention program director was performed.

The UCM trauma center opened in May 2018 and has since been one of the busiest trauma centers in the country, with a 40% penetrating trauma rate. There have been significant reductions in patient transport time on the South Side up to 8.9 minutes ( P <0.001). The violence intervention program employs credible messengers with lived experience representing the community and has engaged over 8000 patients since 2018, developing both community-based and medical-legal partnerships.

The persistent efforts of the community and key stakeholders led to a system change that improved trauma care for the South Side of Chicago.