 Hi, I'm Tom Wood, trauma program manager here at Mid-Michigan Medical Center in Midland. And I'm Dr. Tom Veverka. I'm a general surgeon and surgical intensivist. I'm the medical director of the trauma program. We founded our trauma program in 2011 with a goal of providing care to the citizens locally here in Midland and throughout the region. When you looked at what it was like back then, there was no trauma centers to the north up all the way until Traverse City and nothing to the west until Grand Rapids. So trauma care really wasn't available locally. To be a verified trauma center and having it here in Midland, we now provide care to patients not only in Midland but for the entire region. They no longer have to be shipped outside the region to get their care. Mid-Michigan Medical Center has always had the capability of taking care of trauma patients but by becoming verified, we now provide a more organized system of care. We've expanded coverage for interventional radiology, we have additional orthopedic surgery coverage, and we have added a neurosurgeon as well. Studies have shown that patients who are cared for in a verified trauma center have a better chance of survival as well as good functional outcomes. In February, the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma visited our facility and verified that we meet the over 200 standards of a verified level 2 trauma center. This means that we meet standards such as timely responses to the patient in the emergency department, presence of specialty surgeons, and presence of a trauma specific ICU. We treat a full spectrum of injuries that might result from a car crash, from a fall, including brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, punctured lungs, broken ribs, ruptured spleens, other abdominal injuries, and vascular injuries. We have a full range of trauma-trained medical and surgical professionals such as emergency physicians, special trauma-trained nurses, trauma surgeons, orthopedic surgeons, neurosurgeons, interventional radiologists, and intensivists. The American College of Surgeons verifies four different levels of facility. Level 1 and 2 centers provide the same clinical capacity for patient care, but a level 1 also does research in trauma care as well. A level 3 will also take care of trauma patients but require a level 2 or 1 referral center for more complex injuries. If you're seriously injured and being cared for by an EMS personnel, you can always request for a safe transport to our facility. If you find yourself injured in an outlying emergency department and require a transfer to a trauma center, you can simply tell your ER physician that you'd like to be transferred here. I'm extremely proud to be part of this highly skilled team of trauma professionals. We are very pleased to bring this level of care to Midland and the surrounding communities.