Joseph M. Still Burn Center - TMPartners, PLLC

Joseph M. Still Burn Center - Doctors Hospital Augusta

Doctors Hospital of Augusta is home to one of the largest burn centers in the nation, serving patients nationally with a specific focus on the Southeast. Because burn patients require up to 10 weeks of continued outpatient care, Doctors Hospital established the Joseph M. Still Burn Center to provide a convenient transition to healing for recovering patients.

The original clinic opened in November 2009 with 16 patient bays and four procedure rooms capable of treating burn patients in an outpatient setting. As a result of an ever-increasing patient load, which has recently reached 30,000 patient visits annually, the Burn Center needed to more than double its current space to meet the demand for care.

Initial Expansion

The expansion and renovation of the clinic consisted of the addition of 20 new patient bays and four new procedure rooms for treating burn patients. The existing admitting area was relocated and expanded to accommodate increased patient scheduling. The main waiting area was also relocated and expanded from 36 seats to over 75 seats with a dedicated pediatric waiting room to accommodate patients and their families.

Burn Tower Addition

Of the hospital’s 350 beds, approximately 70 are dedicated to serving burn patients. The beds were spread across the entire hospital from the first floor Burn ICU to several semi-private floors in the hospital’s north tower. The two-story expansion created a private Burn Tower with 48 patient rooms, serving the critical need of adding new private patient rooms and consolidating the burn patient beds into one part of the hospital.

The old burn center had four dedicated burn operating rooms, but burn patients recovered in the Burn ICU as there was no dedicated PACU space. The expansion provided four additional burn operating rooms, a 15-bed dedicated PACU, and a three-bay debridement space for initial patient intake and assessment.

Along with the Burn Center expansion, a new, 500-space, six-and-a-half-story precast parking garage was constructed. The hospital’s helipad was rebuilt and relocated to be adjacent to a new Burn Ambulance entrance immediately adjacent to the debridement spaces.