Burn Center

Maximizing Healing Opportunities for Burn Patients

Burns are some of the most devastating of medical emergencies. Survivors may suffer extreme pain as well as difficult and demanding rehabilitation. The Burn Center at University of Cincinnati Medical Center — the area’s only adult burn center – provides specialized care for those affected by burn injury in hopes of improving a patient’s chance of survival and healing, and resuming optimal function.

Cincinnati’s Only Verified Burn Center

The Burn Center at University of Cincinnati Medical Center is the area’s only verified burn center (for adults) – one of just 53 U.S. hospitals that meet the rigorous standards of excellence set by the American Burn Association (ABA) and the American College of Surgeons (ACS) for delivery of patient care, quality outcomes and commitment to education and research. The Burn Center was one of the first centers to submit for and receive verification status over 15 years ago and has been awarded this verification for the fifth consecutive time.

The Burn Center treats all types of burns, including chemical, scald, thermal and electrical. We care for 400 to 500 new burn patients each year from a four-state area (Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and West Virginia). Our unit features:

  • Eight to 10 inpatient beds
  • State-of-the-art monitoring capabilities for resuscitation and intensive burn care
  • Hydrotherapy tub
  • Specialized equipment, including a physical/occupational therapy area
  • Availability of outpatient evaluation of less-severe injuries

Multidisciplinary Burn Specialists Collaborate to Ensure Continuity of Care

The Burn Center care team features specially trained health care professionals qualified in burn management, wound care and critical care. Our burn physicians have dual appointments at University of Cincinnati Medical Center and Cincinnati Shriners Hospital. Our specialists are asked to teach, participating in the American Burn Association Advanced Burn Life Support – providing fire fighters, EMTs, paramedics, physicians, nurses and other health care professionals with the ability to assess and stabilize patients with serious burns during those first critical hours following injury.

Four attending burn surgeons, resident physicians, physician assistants, nursing staff, respiratory staff, nutrition support, rehabilitative therapists, pharmacy support and social services provide progressive care. As a burn-injured patient, treatment and therapy begin the day you are admitted. You remain on the unit, with your care team following you through your entire healing process, until discharge. Follow-up, outpatient care in the burn clinic is also performed by the same burn care team.

Healing may be a lengthy process. To help with coping, we provide support and education with SOAR (Survivors Offering Assistance during Recovery), part of the Phoenix Society. Trained volunteers who are burn survivors offer assistance to other burn-injured patients as they recover.

Burn Walk In Center Treats Minor Burn Injuries

The adult Burn Center also includes the Burn Walk In Center. It provides immediate, expert burn care to patients with less serious burn injuries who are referred from our ER, or other community hospitals and urgent care centers. Approximately 780 outpatients receive care each year in the Burn Walk In Center. Patients are seen Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.



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    Burns

    Trauma

  • Health Conditions & Treatments

  • Committed to Continued Research

    Our Burn Center specialists are committed to research to develop treatments and guidelines for improving burn care and recovery. We’re invited to conduct research because we provide an exceptional level of burn injury care. Our staff and/or patients have participated in the following research:

    • Industry-sponsored trials of new dressings and bandages that may reduce pain and scars.
    • Multicenter trials to quickly detect blood infections.
    • Studies to determine methods for providing better patient care at lower costs.
    • Studies to measure a patient’s response to a treatment provided in a less-invasive manner.

  • University Hospital

    Best Regional Hospital in Greater Cincinnati

    Our tradition of excellence consistently ranks University Hospital a “Best” hospital by U.S. News & World Report.

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  • Contact Us

    For more information about the services available at University of Cincinnati Medical Center’s Burn Center, please call 513-584-BURN.

    University of Cincinnati Medical Center
    234 Goodman Street
    Cincinnati, Ohio 45219

  • Burn Center Referral Criteria

    The American Burn Association has recommended these injuries as those requiring referral to a burn center following initial assessment and treatment.

    • Second-degree burns greater than 10 percent of the total body surface area (TBSA).
    • Burns that involve the face, hands, feet, genitalia, perineum or major joints
    • Third-degree burns in any age group
    • Electrical burns, including lightning injury
    • Chemical burns
    • Inhalation injury
    • Burn injury in patients with pre-existing medical disorders that could complicate management, prolong recovery or affect mortality
    • Any patients with burns and trauma, such as fractures, in which the burn injury poses the greatest risk of disease or mortality. In such cases, if the trauma poses the greater immediate risk, the patient may be initially stabilized in a trauma center before being transferred to a burn unit. Physician judgment will be necessary in such situations and should be in concert with the regional medical control plan and triage protocols.
    • Burned children in hospitals without qualified personnel or equipment for the care of children
    • Burn injury in patients who will require special social, emotional or long-term rehabilitative intervention.

    Excerpted from Guidelines for the Operation of Burn Centers (pp. 79-86), Resources for Optimal Care of the Injured Patient 2006, Committee on Trauma, American College of Surgeons.

    Resources:

    American Burn Association