By HFT Staff

Tampa General Hospital (TGH) announced the opening of its newly renovated regional Burn Center, including its connected, specialized Burn Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for critically ill burn patients. Tampa General’s Burn Center ICU features new “patient rooms of the future,” which increase the efficiency of care with advanced technologies.  

Tampa General's Burn Center, which treats critically burned patients from emergency admission through rehabilitation, is one of just five burn centers in Florida to have earned verification by the American Burn Association (ABA)/American College of Surgeons (ACS) and one of only two ABA-verified adult and pediatric burn centers in Florida. This distinction means the center has met stringent guidelines for patient care procedures, facilities, and staffing. 

The academic medical center's Burn Center has nurses and physicians who are highly trained in the care of patients who have experienced a burn trauma from fire, chemicals, oil, or electricity over more than 10 percent of their body. All nurses within the unit have Advanced Burn Life Support (ABLS) certification. Specialized care provided in Tampa General's Burn ICU includes intravenous fluid replacement, breathing support, pain control and treatment of burn wounds. The ICU is equipped with state-of-the-art monitoring equipment. 

To streamline care, the newly renovated Burn ICU has added a room specifically for ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation). ECMO is a heart-lung machine that removes carbon dioxide and sends oxygen-filled blood back to tissues in the body, allowing the heart and lungs to rest and heal. 

Within the updated center, care is truly multidisciplinary and focused on the specific needs of the burn patient. Physicians, advanced practice providers, nurses, and therapists provide expertise in infection prevention, nutrition, wound care, reconstruction and rehabilitation. Tampa General also has a Burn Survivor program for patients that provides support after their initial injury. 

A major feature within the renovation of the Burn Center's ICU will be Tampa General's new "patient rooms of the future," which increase the efficiency of care with advanced technologies and allow caregivers to quickly receive the information they need to provide better patient care. The new technology in the Burn Center's ICU aims to simultaneously support quality care, improve patient satisfaction, and increase team member efficiency. An example is the transformation of a standard manual whiteboard to an electronic patient dashboard called an eWhiteboard. 

The eWhiteboard automatically updates pertinent patient information and serves as a dashboard during patient rounding. Another innovation is the Digital Door Sign. Essentially a wall-mounted iPad outside the patient room door, it provides the care team with the most up-to-date information on the patient. This provides efficiency and standardization across the hospital for important data, including the patient's status/requirements, patient-specific alerts, and special instructions to enhance the quality of care and safety.  

Tampa General's Burn Center and ICU treat more than 500 adult burn patients and about 300 pediatric burn patients each year and this newly remodeled unit provides the team with more space to work and care for burn patients, as well as for patients with other skin conditions. 

The renovated Burn Center and ICU make up one part of Tampa General's Master Facility Plan, announced in September 2021. Tampa General's comprehensive Master Facility Plan is the largest in the hospital's history and is the cornerstone of the academic medical center's commitment to developing Tampa Bay's first Medical and Research District to serve the region's increasing health care needs.