social responsibility 2010/2011

Management of Burn Injury Project - The Alfred Hospital and Foundation

Project Completed in 2011

"We thank you once more for your generous support in making these guidelines come to fruition. We welcome their dissemination throughout Skilled Medicals' networks. The guidelines will also be disseminated via Clinicians Health Channel, Department of Health, State Trauma Committee, to all public and private hospital CEOs and Emergency Department Directors and the Victorian Post Graduate Medical Foundation...my sincere thanks and gratitude for all you and Skilled Medical have done."

Yvonne Singer
Victorian State Burns Education Program Coordinator
Victorian Adult Burns Service

The Alfred Foundation and The Victorian Adult Burns Service (VABS)

In response to the 2009 Black Saturday Bushfires in Victoria, Skilled Medical wanted to support a practical project that aimed at improving health outcomes for people with burn injuries living in rural and regional areas.

Skilled Medical collaborated with The Alfred Foundation in Victoria and provided funding for a $40,000 medical research study, "project to improve the care of patients with burn injury in a non-specialist setting” conducted by the Victorian Adult Burns Service to improve the care and management of patients with burn injuries in non-specialist settings.

Over 5000 burn injuries present to emergency departments across the state each year, approximately 400 require specialist burns service care, with most of these injuries being managed by clinicians outside of the burns services.

The study has resulted in the Alfred Foundation’s development of new burn management guidelines www.vicburns.org.au for use by doctors and nurses in the field and will assist with the early treatment of burns to help achieve better clinical outcomes for burn injury patients.

The guidelines specifically assist these clinicians and encompass the following:

     1. Victorian specific transfer and referral criteria
     2. Burns assessment
     3. Initial assessment and stabilisation of severe burns
     4. Guidelines for the management of minor burns that do not require the burns service expertise

The guidelines present the best available evidence and are benchmarked nationally and internationally and engaged other key stakeholders such as Ambulance Victoria, Adult Retrieval Victoria, GP Victoria and metro, regional and rural clinicians who provided feedback regarding content. The guidelines will also be presented at the Australian & New Zealand Burns Association Annual Scientific Meeting in October 2011 and have been submitted for a presentation at the National Trauma Research Institute Conference in Melbourne in November 2011.

See Social Responsibility Handout

See Press Release

To learn more about the Victorian State Burns Clinical Practice Guidelines, please follow this link:
www.vicburns.org.au