Patient Admissions & Access

Burn Center Referral Criteria*

Burn injuries that should be referred to a burn unit include the following:

1. Partial thickness burns greater than 10% total body
   surface area (TBSA)
2. Burns that involve the face, hands, feet, genitalia,
   perineum, or major joints
3. Third-degree burns in any age group
4. Electrical burns, including lightning injury
5. Chemical burns
6. Inhalation injury
7. Burn injury in patients with preexisting medical disorders
   that could complicate management, prolong recovery, or
   affect mortality
8. Any patients with burns and concomitant trauma (such as
   fractures) in which the burn injury poses the greatest risk
   of morbidity or mortality. In such cases, if the trauma
   poses the greater immediate risk, the patient may be
   initially stabilized in a trauma center before being
   transferred to a burn unit. Physician judgment will be
   necessary in such situations and should be in concert with
   the regional medical control plan and triage protocols.
9. Burned children in hospitals without qualified personnel
   or equipment for the care of children
10. Burn injury in patients who will require special
    social, emotional, or long-term rehabilitative intervention

Information for Health Care Professionals

To arrange an emergent transfer, please call 913-588-9999, The KU Med Transfer Center.

Please have the information available that is contained in our Admission Call Record (PDF). This form can be faxed or attached to the chart when the patient is accepted. Our fax number is 913-588-6562.

*Excerpted from Guidelines for the Operations of Burn Units (pp. 55-62),
Resources for Optimal Care of the Injured Patient: 1999, Committee on Trauma,
American College of Surgeons.