Practice Site Contributions to the Overall Growth of a Burn Care Network.

Abstract

Beginning in 2009, The Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta, Georgia began to develop additional practice sites. By 2018, 6 burn centers had been established and the practice network had been organized as the Burn and Reconstructive Centers of America.Between 2015 and 2017, the entire network had 2 consecutive years of increasing burn admissions of +21% and +20%. The proportion of burn admissions managed by the additional sites grew from 37% to 47% during the same period. All practice sites, including the Augusta center, demonstrated sustained net growth of burn admissions.These data show that this practice development plan has achieved substantial growth in burn admissions throughout the practice, with the newly developed sites contributing disproportionately to overall network practice growth. These findings also suggest that the development of new sites could affect burn center accessibility and utilization for burn patients in these areas.