Excuse me for being brief. My internet is coughing up furballs, so I am at the Hilton using their connection.
The General’s daughter needs to go to the US to repair some old burn injuries she sustained as a child. He asked me to find the best (or at least a good) burn hospital in the US.
Of course, my first choice are the Shrine Hospitals for Crippled Children. (Is it not shamelss how I shill?) But the girl is now 20 and so ineligble.
I am about to start Googling. Anyone have any ideas?
OK, so I am loking at
Arizona Burn Center at Maricopa Medical Center
Loyola University Health System Burn Center, Maywood, IL
University of California San Diego Burn Center
University of Utah Hospital Burn Center
University of Michigan Trauma Burn Center
University of Washington Burn Center/ Harborview, Seattle, WA
University of Washington Burn Injury Rehabilitation Model System
odd there are so few burn centers in the US. I wonder why.
OK, I got to sign off. I appreciate everyone took a glance at my question.
In New York, the major burn unit is the Cornell Burn Center, which claims to be the biggest in the world.
In St. Paul, Minnesota, the Ramsey County Hospital (now called Regions Hospital) has a well known Burn unit: http://www.regionshospital.com/Regions/Menu/0,1640,3033,00.html
Old burn injuries as in they have healed but left scars? And now they want the scars removed? Maybe a plastic surgeon would be better than a burn hospital.
Yeah, that was my thought too, but what can they expect when they give me so little information? When I see him, I will ask clarifying questions.
I don’t have an answer to what the best burn hospital in the U.S. is. However, here is a list of burn centers verified by the American Burn Association and the American College of Surgeons.
Personally, I’ve had good experiences with the burn center at the University of Colorado, but that’s also the only one I’ve taken patients to.
St. Urho
Paramedic
This was in a horror book, of all places. Best luck for all.
I’ve worked in the UCSD and Harborview burn ICUs. They are both excellent facilities. They both have award winning rehab centers. (Harborview’s being at UW.)
The heads of both of those units are reconstructive surgeons. I believe that’s true for most burn centers.
The reason for so few, is that burn medicine is very different than other medical intervention. It requires a great deal of specialized equipment and specialized training, making it more cost efficient to have large, magnet centers rather than many small, under-equipped units.
It takes a special type to work with burn patients. I did it to help me with my own fear of being burned. It didn’t help, in fact, it made it worse. I tried twice, but it was just too emotional.
(That is why I have never been in a Shrine hospital. I am a big wuss.)
This was my first thought especially since it sounds like your boss is military.
The UW Hospital in Madison Wisconsin has a burn center. My uncle used that back in 1980. At the time they were cutting edge. I don’t know where their ranking is now.
Saudi military, so the lady would not qualify for treatment there.
A second page on that site (here) lists members of the American Burn Association. I’m not sure how membership is different from accreditation. Anyway, St. John’s in St. Louis is a member and well respected locally.
Aside: I work across the street from Cincy Shriner’s Hospital. I go to their cafeteria once in a while. It’s just heartbreaking. I could not imaging working there. Hats off to the Shriners!
That’s probably another reason (besides the extreme specialization required) there aren’t too many burn hospitals - the Shriner’s Hospitals take a lot of the kids off other hospitals’ hands.
Thank you all.
You know, I wouldn’t rule out the Shrine hospitals on account of the age restriction. My impression is that they treat a fair number of non-pediatric patients, on a case-by-case basis. Certainly the local Shriner hospital (Boston) treated a number of vicitims of that horrific nightclub fire down in Rhode Island. And more generally, as the number of burn cases has fallen overall in recent years, it seems to me that the Shrine hospitals have plenty of capacity. I’d actually try them first.
I seem to recall that BAMC used to be the main burn facility for the US Army. They handled civilians with severe burn cases as well. I’m waiting for a callback from the Plastic Surgery Department and will post when I get a response.