Andrew Kerwin, MD, often compares a trauma center to a fire department, an essential resource people hope they never need.
“Nobody ever gets up in the morning and says, ‘I’m going to slip on the ice while I’m shoveling snow and hit my head,’” he said. “But if that happens, you want to know that the trauma center is there.”
Across Tennessee, that around-the-clock readiness is powered by physicians from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.
In Knoxville and Chattanooga, College of Medicine faculty staff the Level 1 trauma centers at UT Medical Center and Erlanger Health. In Nashville, faculty provide emergency care at Ascension Saint Thomas.
In Memphis, the care UT Health Sciences physicians provide has now earned the Regional One Health Elvis Presley Trauma Center the highest national recognition as a Level 1 Trauma Center.
The designation by the American College of Surgeons (ACS) makes it the only Level 1 adult trauma center within 150 miles and affirms its ability to deliver the most comprehensive trauma care to those in need.
Dr. Kerwin leads the Elvis Presley Trauma Center as medical director and chief of the Division of Trauma/Surgical Critical Care at UT Health Sciences. He and his team began preparing for verification in 2022, culminating in an official verification site visit last August.
The ACS verification process is rigorous, examining everything from emergency response and surgical capabilities to rehabilitation services, education, research, and performance improvement programs. Dr. Kerwin said meeting the hundreds of standards demanded coordination across specialties.
“One patient could come in and be cared for by several hundred people during their stay,” he said. “Ensuring that we’re meeting all the standards for all of those disciplines takes countless hours of behind-the-scenes work that people don’t really see happening.”
“This recognition means that our trauma center stands shoulder to shoulder with the very best in the country — not only in our processes, but in the exceptional quality of care we provide,” said Josh Dugal, vice president of trauma and burn services at Regional One Health. “Being part of an ACS-verified Level 1 Trauma Center places us in an elite class of institutions, and we are incredibly proud to be counted among them.”
A Program Built on UT Health Sciences Training
For Dr. Kerwin, the achievement is also personal.
He completed his trauma and surgical critical care fellowship at UT Health Sciences in 1997. He credits his training under the “pioneers” of the university’s trauma program with shaping his career, particularly Timothy C. Fabian, MD, who launched the trauma program in the 1980s and developed the Elvis Presley Trauma Center. He also acknowledges Martin Croce, MD, chief medical officer at Regional One Health and former chief of the Division of Trauma/Surgical Critical Care at UT Health Sciences.
Tracing his path into medicine, Dr. Kerwin wanted to be a doctor from a young age. While initially interested in orthopedics and sports medicine, the intensity and impact of trauma care won him over.
“I really liked that it was always different,” he said. “I liked the challenges of it, the fast thinking. I found it very rewarding when you had a critically injured patient and you got to know them and their family, and you helped them get through their injury and get out of the hospital and back home.”
Before joining UT Health Sciences in 2021, Dr. Kerwin was the division chief of Acute Care Surgery at the University of Florida College of Medicine – Jacksonville, associate chair of the Department of Surgery, and trauma medical director at UF Health Jacksonville, a Level 1 Trauma Center and one of the busiest in Florida.
That foundation in academic trauma care, he said, continues to shape the program at UT Health Sciences today.
A Team Effort Rooted in Partnership
Dr. Kerwin is quick to emphasize that Level 1 verification was not the achievement of one individual.
“It’s not just me, it’s a team,” he said. “The starting point is a commitment from the hospital. The hospital has to commit and say, ‘Yes, we’re going to do this, and we’re going to commit the resources to do this.’”
That alignment extends across Regional One Health and deep into UT Health Sciences.
“All the trauma surgeons are UT Health Sciences faculty in the Department of Surgery,” Dr. Kerwin said. “The residency is sponsored by the university, our fellowship is sponsored by the university, and the trauma service is a huge part of the training of the residents who rotate through Regional One.”
Subspecialty care at Regional One Health is also anchored in university partnerships, including orthopedic surgeons through Campbell Clinic, neurosurgeons through Semmes Murphey, and numerous other surgical and medical specialists who hold UT Health Sciences faculty appointments.
“All the other physicians are UT Health Sciences faculty, so there’s a very strong UT presence within Regional One helping to take care of all the injured patients that we get,” Dr. Kerwin said.
That academic-clinical partnership strengthens both patient care and training. According to Dr. Kerwin, the focus on quality, a cornerstone of ACS verification, becomes part of the culture trainees absorb.
“I think the emphasis that we put on quality and always looking to make sure that we’re doing things the way we said we’d do — I think the students learn that, the residents learn that in their training, and the fellows definitely learn it, as I did during my fellowship here. They carry the lessons about quality with them when they leave,” Dr. Kerwin said.
What Level 1 Means for Memphis
According to Regional One Health, the Elvis Presley Trauma Center treats approximately 13,000 patients annually, with a 97% survival rate. For these patients and their families, Level 1 verification means immediate access to comprehensive, lifesaving care at any hour.
“I think the difference between a Level 1 trauma center and the community emergency department is that the trauma center has all the health care providers committed to trauma care, 24/7,” Dr. Kerwin said. “That means that at any moment, there’s a team here — physicians, nurses, therapists, X-ray techs — ready to assess a patient, treat any immediately life-threatening problems, control any bleeding, stabilize a patient, and try and get them over their injury and get them back to their family.”
Importantly, Dr. Kerwin said, the systems built to support these efforts strengthen care throughout the hospital.
“It all trickles down,” he said. “The things we need for anesthesia translate to the vascular surgery patient or the spine surgery patient or the hip replacement patient. The commitment to critical care, how the ICU is staffed with nurses, trickles down to the surgical patients. And so, it benefits not only the trauma patients directly, but it benefits other patients in the hospital because we’ve made this commitment to quality for the trauma program.”
Commitment That Continues
Level 1 verification is not a finish line. Every three years, trauma centers undergo re-verification by the American College of Surgeons to ensure they continue meeting the highest standards of care.
“We can’t just sit back and rest on our laurels,” Dr. Kerwin said. “We are continually looking to refine our processes and see how we can continue to grow our program.”
For Memphis and communities across Tennessee, that ongoing work means that on the worst day of someone’s life, a highly trained team led by UT Health Sciences physicians is already in place.
“We’re always there,” Dr. Kerwin said. “Twenty-four seven.”