{"id":317865,"date":"2026-06-24T08:37:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T08:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/317865\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T08:37:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T08:37:08","slug":"lakeland-regional-health-receives-level-1-trauma-center-designation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/317865\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakeland Regional Health receives Level 1 Trauma Center designation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Until now, Tampa General Hospital was the only Level I Trauma Center serving the Tampa Bay area.<\/p>\n<p>LAKELAND, Fla. \u2014 Lakeland Regional Health has been designated a Level I Trauma Center by the Florida Department of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wtsp.com\/health\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Health<\/a>, marking the highest level of trauma care available and expanding critical services in Central Florida.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A spokesperson from Lakeland Regional Health said the designation builds on nearly three decades of trauma care, since LRH has operated as a state-approved Level II Trauma Center since 1997 and a provisional Level I center since May 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>With the new status, the spokesperson explained, the hospital can provide advanced, around-the-clock care for both adult and pediatric patients, reducing the need to transfer critically injured individuals in Polk County. Until now, Tampa General Hospital was the only Level I Trauma Center serving the Tampa Bay area.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe most significant impact is the ability to keep families together during a traumatic event,\u201d said Dr. Timothy Regan, president and chief medical officer.<\/p>\n<p>The spokesperson added that Lakeland Regional treats more than 4,400 trauma patients annually and features four hybrid operating rooms, a robust orthopedic traumatology program and advanced capabilities such as ECMO and whole blood transfusion protocols. Officials say the upgrade strengthens the region\u2019s emergency care network and brings lifesaving services closer to home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Until now, Tampa General Hospital was the only Level I Trauma Center serving the Tampa Bay area. LAKELAND,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317866,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-317865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}