| (a) Trauma service areas (TSAs) are established for
effective coordination, oversight, system development and enhancements,
and delivery of trauma, stroke, perinatal, acute care, disaster response,
and emergency medical services (EMS) in geographical regions consistent
with national standards.
(b) Texas is geographically divided into defined TSAs.
Each TSA shall:
(1) contain no fewer than three Texas counties;
(2) use county borders to geographically define the
TSA boundaries; and
(3) have at least one designated trauma facility within
its boundaries that has or exceeds the advanced Level III trauma facility
designation requirements as defined in §157.125 of this title
(relating to Requirements for Trauma Facility Designation).
(c) The Department of State Health Services (department)
shall maintain the current list of counties included in each TSA and
make the list available on the department's website: dshs.texas.gov.
(d) The realignment of a county to a different TSA
may be initiated by the department or at the request of the Regional
Advisory Council (RAC), provided the transferring county is contiguous
to the county in the receiving TSA.
(1) The requesting RAC shall submit a request to the
Director of EMS/Trauma Systems Section specifying:
(A) reasons for realignment request such as a decrease
in EMS transport time, access to higher levels of care, or access
to additional resources;
(B) existing patient routing patterns used by both
EMS providers and health care facilities, including distances and
transport times involved in this patient routing;
(C) a list of all health care facilities and all first
responder organizations, EMS providers, and county governments affected
by the requested realignment; and
(D) documentation that the RAC of the receiving TSA
agrees with the proposed re-alignment.
(2) The requesting RAC shall forward copies of the
request to all impacted health care facilities' chief executive officer,
first responder organizations, EMS provider medical directors, and
county governments.
(3) The department evaluates the re-alignment request
based on the impact to patient care, including transport times, access
to higher levels of care facilities, or resources.
|
