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Number of hospital burn units falls

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published August 8, 2007

U.S. hospitals are increasingly shutting down their burn centers in a trend experts say could leave the nation unable to handle widespread burn casualties from a fiery terrorist attack or other major disaster.

Experts say burn centers are expensive to maintain and often lose money because they are staffed with highly specialized surgeons and nurses and stocked with sophisticated equipment designed to ease patients' excruciating pain, fend off deadly complications and promote healing.

The number of burn centers in the United States has dropped from 132 in 2004 to 127, and burn beds have fallen from 1,897 to 1,820, says American Burn Association records.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services puts the number of burn beds even lower, at 1,500. Most are usually filled, with the number available on any given day variously estimated at 300 to 500.

"If something happens and we need the beds for burn patients, it is going to be a real catastrophe," said Dr. Alan Dimick, past president of the American Burn Association and founder of the burn center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Tampa General Hospital's burn center added five beds in 2005, bringing its capacity to six intensive care beds and 12 regular beds, said hospital spokesman John Dunn.

TGH has two doctors who specialize in burns and many nurses trained in burn care, Dunn said. And thanks to state grant money, the hospital has plenty of ventilators and other burn-treatment supplies on hand.

Faced with a major influx of burn patients, the center could expand to 36 beds, he said.

If TGH's ward got swamped, though, patients might have to travel to one of three other burn centers: the Orlando Regional Medical Center, the Jackson Memorial Medical Center in Miami or Shands at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

Some states - Mississippi, North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and New Hampshire among them - have no burn centers . South Carolina has only a children's burn center, and there are just a few dedicated burn beds in Maine, Alaska and Hawaii.

Times staff writer Michael Mohammed contributed to this report.

Fast Facts:

A steady decline in burn beds since the early 1970s

The exact number of U.S. burn beds is a matter of dispute and may well be overstated, because hospitals do not always distinguish between specialized burn beds and beds that are used for various traumatic injuries, including burns.

The United States easily had more than 3,000 dedicated burn beds in the early 1970s, and there has been a steady decline since then, said Dr. William B. Hughes, director of the Temple University Hospital Burn Center in Philadelphia.

[Last modified August 8, 2007, 01:41:19]