The Department of Public Health released a report earlier this month showcasing that each year the victims of traffic injuries who are treated at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital are responsible for an average of $35 million in medical bills.
The report based its findings off two years of medical bill data, collected between 2012 and 2014. In that time span, $105.5 million in medical bills were reported for those who were injured in traffic collisions. On average, city trauma surgeons at the hospital respond every 17 hours to a serious traffic injury.
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“Many people aren’t prepared to deal with the high costs and what can be lifelong impacts associated with a traumatic injury. 50 percent of the patients seen at San Francisco General’s Trauma Center are people injured in traffic collisions, making traffic injuries a leading preventable threat to human health in our city,” said Barbara Garcia, Director of the San Francisco Department of Public Health.
The results of the report will be used by the City to better understand the level of severity regarding traffic collisions in San Francisco, and may inform the funding and construction of traffic safety infrastructure down the line.
