Department of Surgery
Burn Center
UF Health acute care surgeons work with hand surgeons, pediatric surgeons, nurses, and social workers to provide thorough and compassionate care for adults and children with burn injuries, severe skin disorders, difficult or chronic wound problems and those requiring assistance following complex corrective or reconstructive surgeries.
The UF Health Shands Burn Center is a 27-bed unit and multidisciplinary program which provides specialized care to patients sustaining burn injuries and related disorders. Patients are admitted directly from the scene of fire incidents as well as in transfer from other hospitals in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama. Over 600 patients are admitted to the inpatient Adult Burn Service and Pediatric Surgery Service each year. Adults are cared for in North Tower Unit 2425. Pediatric patients are admitted to the Pediatric Trauma and Burn Service, in the co-located UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital. The UF Health Shands Burn Clinic, located next door to the inpatient unit, provides outpatient management of burn injuries and their sequelae. In concert with the UF Health Level I Trauma Center, the Burn Center provides care for burn patients who have sustained other traumatic injuries. The unit serves as a primary training location for students in medicine and nursing, residents, fellows, and allied health professionals.
Conditions treated:
- Thermal burns of any size or degree or area of the body
- Chemical burns
- Electrical injuries, including lightning injury
- Inhalation injury
- Toxic chemical exposure
- Friction burns (“road rash”)
- Desquamative skin disorders, including toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) and Steven-Johnson syndrome (SJS)
- Soft tissue infections requiring critical care and advanced reconstruction
- Any of the above disorders complicated by medical co-morbidities, concomitant traumatic injuries, extremes of age, or social barriers.
Referrals and consultation
The UF Health Shands Burn Center provides 24/7 consultation for and accepts referrals of burn injuries of any size, degree, or body area and all related disorders.
- Transfer Center – can be reached at 800-XTRANSFER or 352-265-0559
Inpatient unit:
- 1600 SW Archer Rd Room 2425
Gainesville, FL 32610 - (352) 265-8932
Outpatient Burn Clinic:
- 1600 SW Archer Rd Room 2425
Gainesville, FL 32610 - (352) 265-8932
History
To address the need for specialized burn care in northern Florida, a burn unit of six beds was created in 1978 at a time of great advancement in resuscitation science and burn reconstruction. F. Eugene Tubbs, MD, a state legislator, former flight surgeon for the Gemini space missions, and early proponent of Gatorade® was instrumental in generating funds to establish the burn program. Dr. Hal G. Bingham, MD supervised the early burn unit. Dr. Bingham enlisted in the Army at age 18, seeing action as an infantryman in the Battle of the Bulge during World War II. After the war, he completed college, medical school, and surgical training. He joined the UF faculty as Chief of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery in 1972 and expanded the burn unit in 1988. After Dr. Bingham’s retirement in 1996, David W. Mozingo, MD, a US Army burn surgeon, became the medical director. Under Dr. Mozingo’s leadership, the Burn Center attained verification by the American Burn Association and in 2019 moved into its current state-of-the-art 27-bed unit.
Burn Center Verification
The UF Health Shands Burn Center is verified by the American Burn Association and American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma. In order to maintain the highest possible standards of care, we voluntarily seek assessment by these professional organizations to evaluate our performance. The Burn Center maintains a robust program of quality improvement. This program examines local practices and clinical outcomes. We participate in and submit data to the clinical registry maintained by the American Burn Association, the Burn Care Quality Platform (BCQP). Quality improvement is a pillar of our mission as a verified burn center and often leads to development of clinical guidelines or research questions.
Staff
Our dedicated multidisciplinary team includes surgeons, intensivists, advanced practice providers, nurses, respiratory therapists, and rehabilitation experts who specialize in occupational, physical, and speech therapy as well as a pharmacist, dietician, social worker, case manager, and research coordinator
Burn Surgeons:
Department:
MD-SURGERY-BURN/WOUND CLINIC
Ian R Driscoll MD, FACS
Associate Professor Of Surgery And Anesthesiology; Director, UF Health Shands Burn Center
Department:
MD-SURGERY-BURN/WOUND CLINIC
Andrea M Munden M.D.
Clinical Assistant Professor
Department:
MD-SURGERY-BURN/WOUND CLINIC
Amalia L Cochran M.D.
Clinical Professor
- Nursing Leadership: Janet Popp (nurse manager)
- APPs: Gena Hartman, Tara Garrison, Anthony Musalo, Joanne Hollingsworth, Elizabeth Chandler Smith, Olivia Azadikhah, Parker Novak, William Sutton, David Indarawis, Sarah Ransom, Jong Kim, Theresa Dickinson
- Critical Care Medicine: Brenda Fahy, Carl Peters, Peggy White
- Physical Therapy: Katherine, Guillory, Justin Sherry
- Occupational Therapy: Tony DePiero
- Social Work and Case Management: Betsy Boyle, Rebecca Roland
- Outpatient Burn Clinic: Robin Rocks, Viki Guinn, Coretta Henderson, Elma Curry
- Nutrition: Kristi Horstman
- Speech Therapy: Jillian Kowalski
- Pharmacy: Zachary Drabick
- Research Coordinator I: Bjoern Mueller
- Research Coordinator III: Richard Bush
Research in the Burn Center
In order to advance burn care from laboratory to bedside, the UF Health Shands Burn Center maintains a robust research program. By applying and studying protocols and therapies, we seek to improve outcomes after burn injury, including increased survival, decreased hospital stays, shortened healing time, improved physical and psychological re-integration, and better cosmesis. We are actively recruiting subjects to participate in both local and multi-institution clinical trials.
Current research efforts examine:
- Burn hypermetabolism and nutrition
- Enzymatic debridement of acute thermal burns
- Novel skin substitutes to limit the need for donor sites for skin grafting or to improve the function and appearance of reconstructed burn injuries
- Fluid resuscitation strategies
- Regenerative medicine
- Clinical outcomes after burn injury
- Desquamative disorders
- Burn-related transfusion medicine
- Burn sepsis recognition
Education
The UF Health Shands Burn Center provides a wide range of clinical education and community outreach.
- Burn Fellowship – A one year non ACGME-accredited fellowship in burn surgery is offered to general and plastic surgeons seeking sub-specialty training.
- Graduate medical education rotations in Burn Surgery and Burn Critical Care
- Medical student rotations in Burn Surgery
Community Outreach
- Advanced Burn Life Support (ABLS)
- Burn Support Group – Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors