Burn care
Burn care focuses on the treatment and minimization of injuries caused by heat, chemicals, friction, electricity or radiation. Care can also include specialized reconstructive services.
Burn treatments in Kansas City
Our compassionate and trusted specialists want to help you heal following a burn.
Since 1969, the Grossman Burn Center at HCA Midwest Health has provided acute and reconstructive burn care in a clean and comfortable setting. Our highly skilled specialists want to support you in achieving a speedy recovery so that you can return to enjoying your life.
Related specialties
Learn more about our related specialties.
Burn care services we offer
Our burn care team provides a variety of services related to:
Burns:
- Thermal
- Chemical
- Electrical
- Friction burn/road rash
- Frostbite
- Inhalation
- Radiation
Hand and extremity injuries:
- Complex/traumatic injuries
- Crush injuries
- Degloving
- Upper and lower extremity limb salvage
- Peripheral nerve surgery
- Brachial plexus surgery
- Targeted muscle reinnervation
- Amputee care
Skin and soft tissue disorders:
- Skin sloughing disorders
- Necrotizing fasciitis
- Necrotizing soft tissue diseases
- Fournier’s gangrene
- Staphylococcal scalded skin syndrome
- Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS)
- Toxic epidermal necrolysis (TENS)
- Diabetic wounds
Plastic and reconstructive surgery:
- Head and neck reconstruction
- Breast reconstruction
- Mohs reconstruction
- Migraine surgery
- Lymphedema surgery
- Facial reconstruction
- Laser scar therapy
- Scar revision
Founded in 1969, the Grossman Burn Center has earned a reputation as an innovative leader in burn care. Many pioneering techniques, which are now standard practice in burn treatment, were developed by founder Dr. A. Richard Grossman.
Grossman Burn Centers are known for their expertise in providing acute and reconstructive burn care in a compassionate, personalized environment. This helps us maximize patient comfort and achieve speedier recoveries with better results.
Features of our 8-bed dedicated burn unit include:
- Dedicated burn surgical suite
- Helipad for rapid transport
- Outpatient programs
- Telemedicine services
- Burn victim support programs
- Community safety and prevention education programs
Burn care team
Together with each patient and their family members, we work to heal burns and chronic wounds. Our specialized burn care team provides individualized burn and wound care in a nurturing, team-centered environment. The diverse collection of professionals that make up our burn care team include:
- Burn surgeons
- Chaplains
- Medical physicians
- Nurses
- Nutritionists
- Physical and occupational therapists
- Psychologists
- Respiratory therapists
- Social workers
- Specialty surgeons
How to treat a burn
We provide an extensive range of burn treatments. No matter the condition, we are here with fast, effective care that improves lives. Depending on the severity, there are several things to do for treating burns before coming to see us or calling emergency personnel, including:
- Move away from the burn source as quickly as possible
- Remove belts, jewelry and tight items from the burn area
- Stop the burning process by running the injury under lukewarm (not cold) water. Do not apply creams, lotions or bandages if coming to the hospital. Do not apply ice. Cover with a clean, dry cloth
- Lift burned area above the heart if possible
- Treat any pain with nonprescription pain relievers such as naproxen, acetaminophen or ibuprofen
Please call 911 immediately if a burn runs deep into the skin, quickly begins swelling, or there is leathery or white skin after the burn.
Seek medical treatment for the following types of burn injuries:
- Second degree burns (red/yellow with blisters, painful) larger than 10 percent TBSA (total body surface area). Your palm is 1 percent.
- Third degree (white/leathery/tan, minimal to no pain) any percentage.
- Burns of the face, feet, hands, genitalia, perineum, or large joints.
- Electrical, lightening, chemical or inhalation burns.
- Circumferential burns to the chest or limbs (burn goes completely around like a sock).
- Pre-existing conditions or past medical history making healing more complex like diabetes or nutritional concerns.
- Burn plus other injury such as trauma (burn plus broken bone)
- The very young and very elderly should seek care
- People with special circumstances with social, emotional or rehabilitation needs should seek care.
Our burn treatments
No two burns are the same, and we make sure to treat every condition like the unique one that it is. Different burns require different treatments, and we are prepared for just about any burn condition that could come through our doors. If your burn requires the dedicated treatment of the specialists in our burn center, the variety of available treatments include:
- Biological skin substitutes (bioengineered skin and collagen products)
- Biopsies (removal of cells or tissues)
- Compression therapy and wraps (increasing blood flow by strengthening vein support)
- Debridement (removal of dead, damaged or infected tissue) under anesthesia
- Homograft skin grafting (taking tissue from a donor) and autograft skin grafting (taking tissue from the patient)
- Hydrotherapy (use of water to relieve pain and treat burns and wounds)
- Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (breathing almost pure oxygen to encourage the healing of serious wounds)
- Negative pressure wound therapy (drawing out fluid and infection from a wound)
- Plastic surgery
- Transcutaneous oxygen monitoring (determining the amount of healing oxygen reaching the skin)
- Topical dressings revascularization (restoring the passage of fluid through the circulatory system or lymphatic system)
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is used to treat several medical conditions that involve breathing pure oxygen in a pressurized environment. While other hospitals may have this, at Grossman Burn Center, we use it in a wider range of ways to treat tissue injuries in addition to burns.
This advanced therapy treats a variety of wounds and conditions, including:
- Compartment syndrome and crush injuries
- Burns
- Infections of the bones and skin (necrotizing infections, osteomyelitis)
- Surgical grafts or flaps
- Tissue damaged by radiation therapy
- Vascular disease damage (arterial insufficiency)
Burn center visitor guidelines
The physicians and staff of the Grossman Burn Center at Research Medical Center strive to promote an environment in which staff and families work together to provide quality care to our patients. Our visiting policy is designed to meet the needs of our patients and their families as well as to ensure our patients receive adequate rest.
- With all patients, it is necessary to limit patients to two visitors at a time.
- Visiting hours in the Grossman Burn Center are between 8:00am to 8:30pm. No visiting is permitted outside of these hours as this allows our nursing staff to care for your loved one while you rest.
- Family members are encouraged to return home each night to get rest.
- For safety reasons and the privacy of all our patients, no waiting is permitted in the hallways at any time. We ask that you wait in the designated waiting areas: Burn Center waiting room, main lobby, RMC cafeteria or coffee shop.
- For best line of communication, we ask the family to designate a “contact person.” This person will be given a four-digit code to identify them as the patient’s official contact person and be responsible for relaying information to the rest of the family and friends.
- Due to federal confidentially laws, no detailed information can be released over the phone. All incoming calls will be directed to the “contact person.”
- No children under 14 years old are allowed in the Grossman Burn Center.
- Plants, flowers, fresh fruit and animals are not permitted on the unit.
Grossman Burn Center patient thanks staff for helping recovery
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