590 Is There a Burn Center Community Standard on How to Best Manage Pediatric Burn Patients?
Abstract Introduction A burn center is defined by the American College of Surgeons as a program that facilitates the provision of specialized multidisciplinary care in a designated setting. The Children’s Hospital Association states that pediatric patients need age specific health care delivered by specialty trained clinicians in an environment designed just for kids. When these two different specialty areas within one organization cross paths, how does the organization determine all the factors that go into determining the standard of care? One burn center found itself at the heart of this question when asked to determine the best location and how to care for pediatric burn patients. Methods An email survey was sent to burn centers verified with the American Burn Association (ABA) to care for both adult and pediatric patients and located within their region or with a similar volume. The questions included: Results Thirteen burn centers responded. Nine of the thirteen were located within the western region, two in the mid-west, one each in the south and northeast regions. Eight burn centers were categorized as academic and the other five as teaching hospitals. Bed size ranged from 8–44 with an average of 18 beds. Eighty-five percent of the respondents stated they admitted most if not all pediatric burn patients to the burn unit with two of those centers being the only location within their hospital for pediatric patients. Over seventy-five percent provided 24/7 provider coverage. There was more variability in answers regarding rate of pediatrician consultation, code blue team response, and geographic proximity to a children’s hospital however pediatric consultation was obtained in the majority of cases. Conclusions The survey responses were helpful to communicate some degree of burn center community standard although more centers and increased specificity would have strengthened the argument for a burn center remaining the preferred location for all pediatric burn admissions. Applicability of Research to Practice Sharing of our experience and recommendation that the ABA establish a burn community standard, especially one that takes how to manage competing specialties into consideration, will be helpful to all burn centers who could face this same challenge.