Q & A with Jeanne Lee: 50th Anniversary of Burn Center
The UC San Diego Regional Burn Center has been a leader in making notable advances in burn therapy since 1973, making this year its golden anniversary.
Every year, the Burn Center admits about 400 patients – from infants to older adults – for burn injuries, inhalation injuries, and skin disorders. Its surgeons treat another 800 individuals annually as outpatients in Hillcrest. The Center’s state-of-the-art facility has an intensive care unit, a special burn care unit and an outpatient clinic for minor burn assessments and treatment.
Director of Burn Surgery Jeanne Lee, MD, FACS, shares with us the value of the Burn Center for the San Diego region and the surprising continuity of burn injuries seen over the years and the one simple, two-second at-home maneuver that could prevent a majority of burn injuries.
Q: What is the significance of the 50th anniversary of the UC San Diego Burn Center?
A: The Regional Burn Center at UC San Diego has provided burn care to the San Diego and Imperial County citizens for a half century. We are the only burn center in the area and have maintained the highest quality of care for the last 50 years. We are also one of only 140 verified burn centers in the United States and Canada so we have the resources to take care of burn patients when many hospitals don’t. If we didn’t exist, these patients would have to leave the county and go elsewhere for care. We are able to help patients stay close to home and family which impacts their recovery.
Q: What is the value in having a specialized Burn Center rather than receiving care in a more generalized way?
A: Burn Centers provide all-around comprehensive care to patients. It’s not just about the initial care they receive in the hospital. Verified burn centers have the necessary resources to rehab patients after their burns are healed so the patient can return to work and hopefully, back to their own lives. Our therapists and ancillary services have training that focuses on burn patients who have more demands – from nutrition to physical therapy – than most patients do both in and out of the hospital.
Q: How have the nature of the injuries you treat in the Burn Center changed over the past 50 years? Why are people still getting burned?
A: I don’t think the nature of these injuries have changed in the last 50 years. The majority of our patients still sustain scald burns or flame burns. Accidents will always happen, fires will always be a reality of life and that’s why people still come in with burn injuries.
Q: What did you wish more people knew about burns and staying safe?
A: That is a very large but important topic. First, as the majority of our burn patients suffer from scald injuries – most often from their own faucets, showers, etc. – many of these injuries are preventable with one simple maneuver. Setting your hot water heater at home to no more than 120 degrees F would probably prevent many of these injuries. Many hot water heaters are automatically set to 140 degrees F. At 120 degrees F, it takes more than 5 minutes to sustain a significant burn that would need to be treated. At 140 degrees F, that time is five seconds.
Secondly, I would like for the entire community to know that our burn center exists and that timely referrals is better for the patients. We continue to do outreach to get the word out but still have a fair number of patients who come to us late after injury. The sooner we see patients, the sooner we can make sure they get the care and rehab they need to get them back to their lives.
