Health

UChicago Trauma Center Reduced Travel Time for Shooting Victims, Saving Lives: Study

More than 38,000 patients.

That’s how many people the University of Chicago Level 1 Trauma Center has served since it opened in 2018 — filling a so-called “trauma desert” on the South Side that had existed since the 1991 closure of Michael Reese Hospital’s trauma center in Bronzeville.

Nearly eight years after UChicago’s trauma center opened, numbers show it is delivering on many of its promises.

A study published last week in the journal JAMA Surgery analyzed data on shootings between 2010 and 2024. This spans the time before and after the opening of the trauma center. 

After the center’s opening, transportation time following firearm injuries dropped by nearly 10 minutes. Importantly, this translated to an estimated 79 lives saved for every 2,000 firearm injuries, according to the study.

It might not be surprising that speed can save lives in emergencies. But for Dr. Selwyn Rogers, the founding director of UChicago’s trauma center, having the numbers to back that up is an important part of the center’s past, present and future. 

“There was significant community activism advocating for a trauma center on the South Side of Chicago,” Rogers said.

Protests sprung up after the death of Damien Turner in 2010, but it took five years for the University of Chicago and Sinai Health System to announce the creation of the trauma center. 

Now, being able to show that the center improves outcomes allows doctors, patients and advocates alike to focus on the center’s impact.

Beyond emergency medical care, the trauma center also provides physical and psychological care that might be needed for recovery. These services save lives, but Rogers said there are benefits that weren’t measured in the study.

“You also give (gun violence survivors) an opportunity for their families to see them again, to hold them again, to hug them again, and ultimately for them to have a full recovery,” Rogers said. 

Shaving minutes off the transport time can also help save limbs and organs, and ultimately improve the quality of life for survivors.

“Trauma comes in many forms,” Rogers said. “The more severely injured you are, the more likely you are to … suffer significant complications.” 

Rogers sees UChicago’s expansion of services on the South Side, including the trauma center and a cancer center, as the university taking a positive step toward improving relationships with the community.

While there is still work to be done, Rogers said that access to trauma care is one piece of the puzzle when it comes to addressing gun violence.

Chicago saw its fewest homicides in six decades in 2025, according to police data. At the same time, investment in community violence intervention programs is up. 

Rogers also advocates for forms of violence prevention, such as interrupting retaliatory violence.

“If we can get upstream so that we can prevent people from being injured in the first place, that’s ultimately the best trauma center,” Rogers said.

Rogers’ ideal trauma center is one that, like a firehouse that stands alongside fire prevention, exists but is rarely necessary.

“What we ultimately need is a trauma center, or system of trauma care, that builds itself out of its need,” Rogers said.

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