The Nathan Speare Regional Burn Treatment Center at Crozer-Chester Medical Center recently received re-verification from the American Burn Association and the American College of Surgeons’ Committee on Trauma. This achievement recognizes that the burn center has a continuing dedication to providing optimal care for its patients.
Since 1995, accreditation has been jointly awarded by the American College of Surgeons and the American Burn Association through the Burn Center Verification/Consultation Program for hospitals.
The program promotes hospitals that participants provide the resources necessary for the optimal care of burn patients. This spectrum of care extends from the pre-hospital phase through the rehabilitation process.
In June 2000, the Burn Treatment Center became the first hospital in suburban Philadelphia to meet those criteria. Cynthia Reigart, R.N., nurse manager of the Burn Treatment Center, says, “This accreditation is something the team works year-round to continue to provide more than 35 years of burn expertise. The team is made up of professionals dedicated to knowledge, skill, compassion and state-of-the-art technology to heal burn patients and help them return to the lives they previously led.”
Verified burn centers must meet criteria that ensure burn care capability and institutional performance, as outlined by the American College of Surgeons’ Committee of Trauma in the Burn Care chapter of its Resources for Optimal Care of the Injured Patient manual.
The ACS/ABA Burn Center Verification/Consultation Program for Hospitals does not designate burn centers. Rather, it provides a confirmation that a burn center has demonstrated its commitment to providing the highest quality care for all burn patients by fulfilling these criteria. In order to receive verification, each hospital undergoes an on-site review by a team of experienced burn surgeons.
Linwood R. Haith Jr., M.D., medical director of the Burn Program and chief of Burn Surgery at Crozer, says, “The treatment provided by the team during the first few hours, days and weeks after a serious burn are critical to the patient’s survival and recovery. The team’s excellence shows not only in the critical care aspects of treatment, but also in their dedication and compassion.”
When the Nathan Speare Regional Burn Treatment Center opened in November 1973, it was the first burn treatment center on the East Coast between Boston, Mass., and Richmond, Va. Today, it is still the only burn facility in suburban Philadelphia and continues to provide many valuable services to burn patients and their families in one location. It provides emergency treatment to intensive care, rehabilitation, follow-up and outpatient care.
Care of the burn patient is multidisciplinary; it requires expertise provided by physicians, nurses, educators, burn technicians, patient care secretaries, respiratory therapists, physical and occupational therapists, clinical nutritionists, psychologists, social work and case managers and multi-specialty physician consultants in trauma, critical care, infection, metabolism, nutrition, wound care, reconstruction and rehabilitation. It is essential that those who care for burn patients are well-informed in all areas, especially since tremendous advances in the care of the burn patient are being made at a rapid pace in many scientific fields.
“All members of the burn treatment team work together to meet our goal of returning each patient to a productive life. Each member of the team makes a unique contribution to that process, from the surgeons to the nurses to the physical and occupational therapists,” says Mary Lou Patton, M.D., F.A.C.S., F.I.C.S., F.S.S.O., F.C.C.M., medical director of the Nathan Speare Regional Burn Treatment Center.
The American Burn Association is a multidisciplinary not-for-profit organization first organized in 1967 to stimulate and sponsor the study and research in the treatment and prevention of burns, to promote a forum for presentation of such knowledge, to foster training opportunities for individuals interested in burns and to encourage publications pertaining to the foregoing activities.
The American College of Surgeons is a scientific and educational association of surgeons that was founded in 1913 to raise the standards of surgical education proactively and to improve the care of the surgical patient. Longstanding achievements have placed the college in the forefront of American surgery and have made it an important advocate for all surgical patients.
For more information about the Nathan Speare Regional Burn Treatment Center, go to www.crozer.org.