Burn Fellowship Facilities
ADMINISTRATIVE STRUCTURE & TEACHING FACILITIES
Administrative Structure
This fellowship is approved by the Graduate Medical Education Committee at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, Texas and the Texas Medical Board. The fellowship is under the umbrella of Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and run within the Department of Surgery, Divisions of Burn and Wound. All major changes to the fellowship are made by the program director in consultation and cooperation with the Associate Dean for Medical Education and the Graduate Medical Education Committee of Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center.
Clinical Training
All clinical training will be conducted at two facilities.
The Timothy J. Harnar Burn Center at University Medical Center in Lubbock, Texas
The burn center was established in 1983 and has been a certified burn center continuously
from 1992 to present. The burn center last underwent a successful site visit for verification
in 2010. The burn unit is a dedicated 10-bed unit with free standing staffing and
nursing oversight combined with the trauma/surgical care intensive care unit. The
unit has an internal facility for wound care, capabilities for very advanced intensive
care management and a dedicated area for physical and occupational therapy. In addition,
the burn and wound service has access to the whole hospital for admissions and postoperative
care for the less severely compromised patients.
The burn and wound service, on a day to day basis, run by an attending with expertise in this area, a second year surgery resident and a nurse practitioner with access to all support staff as needed. The service admits and sees close to 700 inpatients per year with almost 350 admissions to the burn unit directly. (The 2010 patient activity numbers are included).
The burn and wound service runs a very active outpatient clinic with 1,500 to 1,600 contacts per year. The clinic is located in the Medical Office Plaza building connected to the University Medical Center in the area of physical and occupational outpatient therapy.
Southwest Regional Wound Care Center
The Southwest Regional Wound Care Center is a free-standing facility that is only
a short distance from University Medical Center and is administratively and structurally
part of UMC. This wound care center is dedicated to taking care of complex and chronic
wounds using multimodality treatment approaches and is fully staffed with physicians
having expertise in wound care management, nurses, physical and occupational therapists
and nutritionists. Their mission statement includes the following: “Our healthcare
professionals come together under one system, in one location, to accomplish one goal
with their specialized skills – healing wounds. As a leader in treating hard to heal
wounds, everything we do is carefully designed to nurture the whole patient (body,
mind, spirit) and not just the wound”.
SRWCC is very well equipped and uses the most advanced technology in their wound care. In addition, to vascular exam, they have the capabilities of measuring tissue oxygenation, advanced investigation on biofilms using molecule diagnostic techniques and has the area’s only hyperbaric oxygen chamber. SRWCC emphasizes individual evaluation and treatment plan for each patient and each wound.
SRWCC has also acquired national recognition and NIH funding for their research on biofilm and chronic wounds.
Research
In addition to the clinical areas, the Division of Burn runs a very active bench research located within the Department of Surgery in cooperation with the Department of Microbiology. Main research interests are understanding and advanced treatment of pseudomonas infections and trying to define and control biofilms in burns and chronic wounds.