Lee Health moves trauma center to Gulf Coast Medical Center

Lee Health’s trauma center has moved after the hospital system spent $315 million to expand Gulf Coast Medical Center.

The move from Lee Memorial Hospital to Gulf Coast Medical Center became official Wednesday morning. Lee Health’s trauma center is the only one between Sarasota and Miami.

The reason for the move, according to Lee Health, is Southwest Florida’s population continues to grow and so do the number of trauma patients.

In order to keep up, the hospital system needed more space and high-end equipment. The trauma center at Lee Memorial Hospital was also in need of an upgrade.

Doctors say it’s a huge improvement over the old one.

“We have a bigger ICU, we have a new facility,” said Dr. James Kasiewicz, medical director for trauma services at Gulf Coast Medical Center. “We are able to better climate control our trauma base, much bigger areas in the trauma bays. They’re beautiful.”

Lee Health’s trauma center treats about 2,400 traumatically-injured patients each year.

And trauma alerts continue to go up from vehicle crashes, falls and even gunshot wounds.

At Gulf Coast, there are 624 in-patient beds.

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