title: Burn disaster preparedness and the southern region of the United States.
abstract: Disasters with significant numbers of burn-injured patients create incredible challenges for disaster planners. Although not unique to burn care, high-intensity areas of specialty such as burns, pediatrics, and trauma quickly become scarce resources in a disaster.All disasters are local, but regional support is critical in burn disaster planning. On a day-to-day basis, burn bed capacity can be problematic. A review of the literature and our experiences, including mathematical modeling and real events, reaffirm how rapidly we can overwhelm our resources.This review includes the Southern Burn Plan, created by the burn centers of the American Burn Association's Southern Region, should there be a need for additional hospital burn beds (capacity) and burn care (capability) in response to a disaster. This article also explores planning and preparedness developments and describes options to improve our efforts, including training and education.It is incumbent upon everyone in the healthcare profession to become comfortable managing burn-injured patients until the patients can be moved to a burn center. Understanding the regional capacity, capability, and when a surge of patients may require the practice of altered standards of care is essential for those involved in medical disaster preparedness.
authors.affiliation: Southern Region, American Burn Association, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA. Randy_kearns@med.unc.edu
authors.forename: Randy
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kearns
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Holmes
authors.forename: Bruce
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Cairns
mesh_terms: D002053:Burn Units / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000600:supply & distribution; D002056:Burns; D004189:Disaster Planning; D006742:Hospital Bed Capacity; D006801:Humans; D054527:Mass Casualty Incidents; D010360:Patient Transfer / Q000458:organization & administration; D012040:Regional Health Planning / Q000458:organization & administration; D015144:Southeastern United States; D015206:Southwestern United States; D055872:Surge Capacity / Q000458:organization & administration*