MetroHealth will cease operating its pediatric trauma center at the end of the year, saying the region no longer needs it.
The hospital will keep operating its Level I adult trauma center, which can care for children over 15 with serious injuries and younger children with less severe injuries. Younger children with the most complex injuries will be transferred or routed to University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children’s.
This is not a significant change from how the system operates now, the hospital said in a release Wednesday. The most complex cases involving young children are already transferred or directed to Rainbow Babies & Children’s because it has a higher-level pediatric trauma center than MetroHealth.
The change comes because MetroHealth said it’s seen a decline in pediatric trauma cases in recent years. Since 2023, pediatric trauma volumes declined 50%, the hospital said. It attributed the decline to the region’s aging population. In Northeast Ohio, adults over 65 now outnumber kids.
The hospital also noted that a “nationwide shortage” of pediatric neurosurgeons has made it difficult to sustain the staffing levels required to be a trauma center.
MetroHealth’s emergency department will continue to treat children. There will be no staff layoffs or impact to the hospital’s adult Level I trauma center as a result of the pediatric trauma center closure, the hospital said.
News comes amid trauma center debate in Cleveland
The decision comes at a critical time for trauma care in Northeast Ohio. The Cleveland Clinic announced in January that it plans to open a new adult and pediatric trauma center at its main campus in 2028, a plan that MetroHealth opposes. MetroHealth has said the region does not need another trauma center and that opening a new one would dilute patient volumes at existing centers.
MetroHealth’s decision to close its pediatric trauma center was not a result of the Clinic’s plans, said Tim Magaw, a spokesperson for MetroHealth.
Still, the hospital pointedly referred to community needs and issues around patient volume in its press release about the pediatric trauma center’s closure. Trauma surgeons, doctors and nurses perform best with high patient volumes, wrote MetroHealth’s president and CEO Dr. Christine Alexander-Rager in a statement
“When pediatric trauma cases are declining and pediatric neurosurgeons are in critically short supply, concentrating that care at the region’s high-volume children’s center strengthens it. Spreading it thin would dilute it,” she wrote. “We make trauma decisions based on community need and patient outcomes – that’s the standard that tells us when to step back and when to invest and grow.”
The hedline for this story was updated after the story was published to reflect additional information fro, MetroHealth about the pediatric trauma services the hospital can still provide.
