Who We Are

The Cook County Trauma Unit at Cook County Health is America’s first comprehensive center dedicated solely to the care of the acutely injured patient. Since 1966, the unit has served as a national model for trauma care.

Our Services

Our trauma team provides a continuum of care for all seriously injured trauma patients from the moment they arrive at the hospital, through surgery, post-surgery and rehabilitation care.Patients are cared for by the same team of physicians and nurses from their arrival in the resuscitation area throughout their hospital stay.

Cook County Trauma and Burn has 9 full-time attending trauma/burn surgeons, up to 6 clinical trauma fellows, and 2 clinical burn fellows. Our program and administrative staff support patient care through intervention, therapy and mentoring, and providing quality assurance and process improvement.

Trauma Unit

Education at The Cook County Trauma & Burn Unit is dedicated to training the next
generation of physicians, allied health practitioners and public safety providers through an
immersive, high-volume, and high-acuity clinical experience. As the only freestanding
Trauma Department in the nation, we provide learners with unparalleled exposure to
penetrating and blunt trauma, complex resuscitations, and advanced surgical interventions.

Trauma at Cook County is rooted in a commitment to excellence, equity, and innovation.
Our program serves a culturally diverse and medically underserved patient population,
fostering expertise in multidisciplinary collaboration.

Burn Unit

The Cook County Burn Unit, an American Burn Association verified center, has experienced staff operating within a 6 bed ICU, a 10 bed step-down unit, and a dedicated ward. We manage all aspects of burn care in adults and pediatric patient populations from initial resuscitation to complex reconstruction treating over 1,500 burns annually, admitting over 350 major burns.

Injury Prevention & Intervention

Healing Hurt People-Chicago (HHP-C) is our hospital-based violence intervention program (HBVIP) launched in August 2013 as a collaboration between the John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County (Stroger), The University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital (Comer) and the Center for Nonviolence and Social Justice at Drexel University in Philadelphia (Drexel). Through assessment, psycho-education, intensive case management, group therapy and mentoring, Healing Hurt People-Chicago helps youth who’ve been violently injured, so they can heal both physically and emotionally.

CLICK TO LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR HISTORY

County Trauma in the News