UCSD Burn Center

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The UCSD Regional Burn Center in San Diego, California has developed advanced systems for evaluating and treating burn injury patients for over 30 years. The Center has been a leader in making notable advances in burn therapy and includes an intensive care unit, special burn care unit and outpatient clinic for minor burn assessments and treatment. According to Nurse Manager Janine Dubina, the Burn Center has approximately 400 admissions per year, ranging from infants to seniors.

Director of Burn Surgery for the UCSD Regional Burn Center, Bruce Potenza, M.D. stated, "The leading cause of burns in children under the age of 4 remains scald. And it's not scald that occurs in your bathrooms, it's scald that occurs in your kitchen. So your kitchen is one of the most dangerous places in your home for a child with respect to burn injuries."

Since 1973, the UCSD Burn Center has served the San Diego and Imperial Counties with:



• State-of-the-art care to victims of burn injury

• Support to families and friends

• Community education

• Emergency medical personnel training

• Research and the advancement of burn care

Often, there are not enough beds in the unit for all of the admitted patients.  Janine Dubina claimed that at times, there is such limited space availability that patients need to be put on other floors. Although there is limited space, patient care is top notch and the Burn Center is known for being the leader in burn therapy.

The UCSD Burn Center is one of only two hospitals on the West Coast that uses face masks for their patients. Doctors and nurses say that they are critical to the healing process of a burn victim. "The mask itself of course makes the patient feel better when they go out in public because they need to wear this 23 out of 24 hours a day. While they are wearing this mask, it helps to decrease the scarring and also helps with softening the scars and spreading them out so that they have a better outcome," explained Leann Cortimiglia, RN.

Firefighter fundraisers help pay for items such as face masks to help patients when they leave the hospital. The relationships between firefighters and the burn centers two fold. Many firefighters find themselves calling the burn center to check up on a patient they rescued, and they themselves are sometimes patients. In 2007, during the San Diego wildfires, several firefighters found themselves in the UCSD Burn Center recovering from injuries.

Battalion Chief Mike Vogt with CAL FIRE/San Diego Fire Authority expressed, "First of all, the care is outstanding. I've never had to experience it  personally, but I think this is probably the best care they could have possibly got in the world. So that's number 1. Number 2, they accommodated us right out of the gate. Basically, we took this floor over."

With 18 beds and sometimes as many as 38 patients, the staff at the UCSD Burn Center often will work nonstop for days on end. "The staff really works very long hours. We've had staff members work as long as 18 days in a row, 12, 14 hour shifts because we know that the first 96 hours will determine the outcome of the patient," added Janine Dubina. After working long shifts, these doctors and nurses go the extra mile and volunteer in their spare time to teach fire prevention and be the medical support at the Burn Institute's summer camp for kids.

Contributors to this story:

Deanne Goodman - Reporter
Ann Zevely - Camera/Editor
Renee Marquart - Text Story


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Author:D. Goodman, A. Zevely, R. Marquart - FDNNTV.com