Emergency & Trauma Center
If you are experiencing a life-threatening injury or illness, please call 911.
Iowa Methodist Medical Center
Adult Emergency Department
515-241-6213
Level II Trauma Center
515-241-4190 (office)
Life Flight
515-243-4357 or 1-800-978-2862
Ambulance Services
515-241-4EMS
Iowa Lutheran Hospital
Emergency Department
(Pediatric and Adult services)
515-263-5120
Methodist West Hospital
Emergency Department
515-343-1200
Blank Children's Hospital
Emergency Department
515-241-6611
Trauma Services
Iowa Methodist Medical Center has been a nationally-recognized trauma center from the American College of Surgeons since 1981. Currently Iowa Methodist Medical Center and Blank Children's Hospital are verified as Level II Trauma Centers (adult and pediatric) by the American College of Surgeons.
What is a Level II Trauma Center?
Based in a hospital, a trauma center has dedicated considerable time, equipment and facilities to the care of severely injured patients. Nurses, physicians and ancillary hospital personnel are highly-skilled and trained in the emergency and trauma treatment of these patients. Even though the quality of care is expected to be similar throughout all levels of trauma care, the severity and the volume of injured patients is higher at a Level II Trauma Center.
The trauma team at Iowa Methodist Medical Center and Blank Children's Hospital includes members from many departments such as:
- Adult and Pediatric Emergency Departments
- Blood Bank
- Critical Care and Pediatric Intensive Care Units
- Emergency Communication Center
- General Nursing Floors
- Laboratory
- Life Flight
- Pastoral Care (Chaplains)
- Physiatry
- Radiology
- Public Safety
- Social Services and Case Management
- Surgery
- Trauma Research Department
- Younker Memorial Rehabilitation Center
Iowa Methodist Medical Center is recognized by the Iowa Department of Public Health as a Resource Trauma Care Facility for Iowa, verified by the American College of Surgeons as a Level II Trauma Center.
Our Commitment
We are honored to be a leader in providing healthcare services for you and your family here in Central Iowa. For more than 100 years, we have been committed to providing high-quality, compassionate medical care. We are dedicated to our mission of improving the health of our community through healing, caring and teaching. The physicians, nurses and staff of Iowa Methodist Medical Center, Iowa Lutheran Hospital, Blank Children's Hospital, Methodist West Hospital, John Stoddard Cancer Center and our more than 45 physician clinics throughout central Iowa are committed to providing quality healthcare and health education.
The trauma team is led by the trauma surgeon and contains a group of health care professionals. The team is organized to provide care for trauma patients in a coordinated and timely manner.
The Trauma Response Team
- Trauma surgeon
- Emergency physician
- Surgery resident physicians
- Emergency room, critical care and operating room staff
- Anesthesia
- Blood Bank and laboratory technologist
- Respiratory therapist
- Radiology technologist
- Security officers
- Chaplain and social workers
When the most severely injured patients arrive, these team members are already preparing for patient arrival. Patients are evaluated and treated simultaneously and expeditiously. Team members remain with the patient until transferred from the ED to the operating room, critical care unit or surgical floor.
The trauma team continues to care for the critically injured patients during their hospital stay. The team is a surgeon-led multidisciplinary team that cares for all trauma patients once they have been admitted to the hospital and after life and limb saving procedures in the operating room. This team approach to the care of critically injured or surgical critical care patients has been proven to lessen health care expenses and is critical to provider minute-to-minute care and decrease the risks of complications. Every member of the team contributes to patient care through daily collaboration and team visits.
The Multidisciplinary Trauma Team
- Trauma surgeon
- Surgery resident physician
- Trauma pharmacist
- Trauma nurse
- Dietitian
- Respiratory therapist
- Rehabilitation specialists
- Case manager and social workers
- Nurses and staff
- Patient and their family members