The Burn Unit, a small hospital within the Hospital

The current Vall d'Hebron Burn Unit was launched in 2006 at the Traumatology and Rehabilitation Hospital, although Vall d'Hebron had already been a leader in burns since the late 1960s, when Dr. Jaume Planas was at the head of the Plastic Surgery Service.

July 2006

The current Burn Unit has 6 beds for major burns, equipped as ICU beds, 10 rooms for minor burns, with 2 beds each, an operating room, emergency room and gym. The Burn Unit is a hospital within the Hospital, because it includes all the care for the burn patient from the moment they arrive at the Emergency Room, which is within the Unit itself. If the patient has to be admitted, they stay in the Burn Unit and do not leave until they are discharged. During this period, which in major burns can be several months, they receive everything they need, from interventions to remove the burned tissues, care, postoperative care and rehabilitation in the Unit's gym. Since the Unit has a day hospital, the patient can be discharged early and return to the Hospital to receive the care they need until they are completely cured.

The care is in the hands of a multidisciplinary team that includes surgery, anesthesiology, intensive care medicine, plastic surgery, infectious diseases, nursing, physiotherapy, rehabilitation, psychology, psychiatry and social work. Other specialties also participate depending on the type and location of the burns and the alterations that the patient may manifest, such as ophthalmology, otorhinolaryngology or nephrology.

Return to the origins

With its location in the Traumatology, Rehabilitation and Burns Hospital, the new Burns Unit returned to its origins in 2006, after having previously been transferred to the ninth floor of the General Hospital. When the Unit was in the General Hospital, the difference was that major burns patients who were intubated were admitted to the ICU of the General Hospital, a few floors below, and were only taken up to the Burns Unit on the day they had to undergo surgery.

With the return to the Traumatology, Rehabilitation and Burns Hospital, much more than just the space changed. A much more humanized model of care began to be introduced that allowed patients to receive visits from their families. Previously, patients were completely isolated. Patients and their families could only see each other through glass and speak over a telephone. Even if the patient was very serious or feared for his life, the family was not allowed to enter to comfort him or say goodbye. The prevention of infections was prioritized.

Another aspect that has also changed a lot is that of care. In addition to having many more resources to facilitate the healing and recovery of burned tissues and improve their functionality, care is now done with sedation, so that the patient does not suffer.

Reference unit

The Vall d'Hebron Burns Unit is a reference for all of Catalonia, Andorra and the Balearic Islands. Vall d'Hebron is also a reference hospital for Europe, as it was the first center in the State with the EBA accreditation of the European Burn Association, which represents recognition of the high standards of quality in the care of burned people and implies that, in the event of a major catastrophe, it would be one of the reference hospitals to treat the injured.

Over the years, the Vall d'Hebron Burn Unit has treated people who were burned in the ETA attack on Hipercor in 1987, the ETA attack in Sabadell in 1990, the explosion of a building in Gavà in 2008 or the fire in Horta de Sant Joan in 2009.

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