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Chattanooga: Firefighters relieved by explanation of burn unit closure

By: Emily Bregel
(Contact)

Included in this article

Jim Brexler

Local firefighters said they are relieved that Erlanger hospital is not getting out of the burn treatment business, despite the closure of the hospital’s burn unit last week.

“We’re happy to know that the emergency care would still be given to us (at Erlanger,) but the fact of the long-term care (being provided elsewhere), we’re not happy about that,” Jeff Eldridge, president of the Chattanooga Firefighters Association, said Wednesday. The association is the union representing area firefighters.

At a Wednesday news conference at Erlanger, hospital executives and burn care physicians sought to quell a backlash from community members concerned that the closure of the burn unit could mean a delay in treatment for burn patients. Firefighters had been one of the most vocal groups.

Hospital officials emphasized that the emergency care of burn patients has not changed, though patients with severe burns — those covering more than 20 percent of their bodies — will be transferred to regional burn centers for long-term care after they have been stabilized at Erlanger, said Dr. Woody Kennedy, director of the hospital’s burn program.

“The most important part of the burn care is really the first eight hours or so, when you do most of the significant resuscitation. We will continue to do that initially here” for all patients, Dr. Kennedy said.

The burn unit’s former medical director, Dr. Lesley Wong, left the hospital in February for family reasons. Acknowledging the difficulty of recruiting a new medical director to a relatively small unit, Erlanger CEO Jim Brexler said her departure prompted hospital physicians and officials to re-evaluate the capacity of the burn center.

Finances were not the main reason for the hospital’s closure of the burn unit, which actually brought in about $500,000 in revenue in the past fiscal year, Mr. Brexler said. But in other years, the burn unit has cost the hospital as much as $2 million, he said.

Local reaction to the news of the burn unit’s closing has been marked by anger and some confusion over what the closure would mean for the community. Some people still are upset that family and friends must travel to other cities to visit loved ones undergoing long-term burn treatments.

“If you let the public know this was going to take place instead of at the last minute — one day you’re open, the next day you’re not — well, that’s not good communication to the public,” Mr. Eldridge said.

Erlanger officials explained Wednesday that the Fourth of July holiday meant many hospital executives were unavailable for comment last week and could not fully explain the change.

At the news conference, Mr. Brexler discussed the possibility of constructing a 15- or 20-bed comprehensive burn center at Erlanger, which likely would require a $12 million to $15 million investment.

David Thompson, a retired fire captain and nurse at Erlanger hospital, said he still has qualms about the burn unit’s closure but is optimistic about the possibility of a new center. Mr. Thompson, who often worked in the burn unit, had been vocal in his concern about the unit’s closure.

“As sad as the situation is, I think it’s going to be a positive for the community. We are going to be able to move forward with this and make something better,” he said.

Rep. JoAnne Favors, D-Chattanooga, a former Erlanger board member, said she still is worried about the added burden the closure might put on clinical staff in other areas of the hospital.

“I’m glad to hear it’s not considered a permanent situation,” she said. “I hope that we will have a burn center in the very near future because, as I maintain, there still is a serious gap in the care of severely burned patients when we don’t have a burn unit open.”

Across the nation, smaller burn units are closing and transferring severe burn patients to regional centers with greater resources, said Dr. James Holmes, medical director of the burn center at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C.

“The best way you provide highly specialized, labor-intensive expensive treatments is in fully equipped centers that provide excellent care,” he said.

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