Michigan Statewide Systems of Care

Heart attack, stroke, and traumatic injuries are leading causes of death in Michigan. These time-sensitive emergencies benefit from a coordinated system of care that prioritizes timely assessment and transport to the closest hospital delivering the appropriate care. Prompt recognition and treatment improve patient outcomes and reduce death and disability. Michigan is committed to implementing a system of care with the goal of improving patient outcomes for those experiencing these time sensitive emergencies.

Michigan began developing a system of care for patients with traumatic injuries in 2000. The trauma system has been funded since 2012 and is now fully operational. The successes of the trauma system in several states including Michigan supported modeling this system for other time-sensitive emergencies such as a stroke or heart attack.

The Statewide Systems of Care in Michigan are modeled after the trauma system and designed to organize trauma, stroke, and heart attack (ST-elevation myocardial infarction or STEMI) care into an integrated network of hospitals, ambulance, and community services. The administrative rules for each of the three systems describe the components of the systems and guide their operations.

The administrative rules are available in the System Resource Section under the Trauma tab below. Information about the components of the statewide system of care including data collection, the process of verification and designation of facilities, and information about the regional system can be found in the following sections. Specifics related to each program (trauma, stroke, and STEMI) are in the subsections under each tab. As the stroke and STEMI sections of the system matures more information and resources will be added.

Coordination of stroke and STEMI systems of care, modeled after, and integrated into the trauma system, is the best approach to ensuring Michiganders experiencing time-sensitive emergencies will be quickly identified, triaged, provided appropriate care, and transported to the closest hospital with the appropriate resources.