Samaritan Hospital receives Level 3 trauma designation

MOSES LAKE — Samaritan Hospital has been designated as a Level 3 trauma center. Hospital district officials received notice of the change Friday.

Previously the hospital had been designated a Level 4. The designations refer to the kind of trauma cases a hospital can treat. The higher the trauma-level designation, the more complicated the cases the hospital can treat.

Samaritan will be the second Level 3 hospital in central Washington. The other is Confluence Health-Central Washington Hospital in Wenatchee.

Trauma treatment programs are evaluated every three years, and trauma designations are in effect for three years.

— Staff report