By B. Raack, KWMU
St. Louis, Mo. – Trauma centers in Missouri are celebrating Governor Bob Holden's signing of the Medicaid portion of the state budget, which will keep them open for at least another year.
The most endangered hospital may have been DePaul Health Center in north St. Louis County. Hospital president Melinda Clark says state funding was set to run out Monday - and she was preparing to close DePaul's trauma services.
"There's only 900 patients in that program but the patients that come in are acutely and critically ill and the transport time would have been very significant for them," Clark said.
Clark says DePaul's portion of the Medicaid budget - which is still not known - and a recent grant will allow it to continue offering trauma services for another eighteen months.