42 Erie County Medical Center 1978-Present The Regional Burn Treatment Center. Thanks to its high standards of care, ECMC was named the region’s designated trauma center in 1989. In that year, the hospital also opened the Regional Burn Treatment Center and was designated the regional center for spinal cord injury, acute traumatic brain injury, and AIDS. The addition of ECMC’s Regional Burn Treatment Center included six patient rooms and strengthened the medical center’s level of trauma care. Formerly at Sheehan Memorial Hospital, the Burn Center provides a comprehensive set of highly specialized services including extensive rehabilitation and psychosocial support. Through its long affiliation with the University at Buffalo School of Medicine, ECMC offered the necessary components to establish a program of excellence for Western New York. Dr. Roger Seibel developed an exceptional ‘burn team’ by setting high, uncompromised standards that focused on providing the best care for patients. Because of his medical professionalism and devotion to his patients, the unit is now known as the Roger W. Seibel, MD, Burn Treatment Center. Emergency medicine. In the Emergency Department, where over 75 percent of all patients admitted to ECMC are first treated, physicians and nurses trained in emergency medicine administer care to patients with everything from broken bones to sudden illness to severe trauma. The use of bedside ultrasound examinations in trauma patients, now common in hospitals nationwide, was pioneered at ECMC by Dr. Dietrich Jehle, former director of the Emergency Department. Besides responding to emergency situations, the emergency team serves as a community partner through programs like the Specialized Medical Assistance Response Team (SMART), a 24/7 physician response team for mass casualty incidents. ECMC is also the Regional Emergency Preparedness Resource Center for mass casualty response in Western New York. Above, Dr. James Lukan and staff in the Dr. Roger W. Seibel Burn Unit at Erie County Medical Center. Below, Dr. Michael A. Manka Jr., Chief of Emergency Medicine at ECMC. Photos coutesy Wagoner Photography. Right, Dr. Philip Stegemann, Chief of Service, Orthopaedics (second from left) and orthopaedic surgical team perform arthroscopic (minimally invasive) shoulder proceedure. Photo courtesy Wagoner Photography.