BARRY WILLIAMS/ Special

Nurse practitioner Jocelyn Hills bandages Cora O. Jackson's hand at WellStar Cobb Hospital's new burn clinic. "We wanted to move our care closer to the patients," Hills said.

In 1978, Dr. Joseph M. Still persuaded the administrators of Doctors Hospital in Augusta to build a burn center. He and his staff developed a multidisciplinary model for treating burn patients that has been used worldwide.

His center attracted patients from all over the Southeast and, at the same time, conducted cutting-edge research on new medications and technologies. The Joseph M. Still Burn Center has never turned a patient away because of an inability to pay. Now the largest burn center in the country, the facility treats about 2,000 new burn patients a year.

Still died last year, but, in keeping with his dedication and goals to advance the treatment of burn patients everywhere, the 59-bed Joseph M. Still Burn Center is still expanding its reach.

In November, the center partnered with WellStar Cobb Hospital to open a burn clinic at the hospital in metro Atlanta.

"I don't know of any other burn center that has an outlying clinic, but with Mississippi closing its burn center, our patient population is coming from Georgia, South Carolina and parts of North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida," said Jocelyn Hills, a nurse practitioner at the Joseph M. Still Burn Center. "We wanted to move our care closer to the patients, and Atlanta seemed like a good place to go."

On Mondays and Thursdays, surgeons and staff from the Still Burn Center travel from Augusta to an outpatient clinic in Atlanta to treat patients with small burn injuries. Some are new patients who have been referred by doctors, and others are burn center patients who need follow-up care. If patients need physical or occupational therapy, they can get it through WellStar services. Patients with more severe burns and those who need hospitalization are transferred to the Still Burn Center.

"Grady Hospital has an excellent burn center, but they don't take care of small injuries, so we feel like we're filling a niche," Hills said. "Even small burns take time to heal and require ongoing care. Our patients think that it's wonderful that they don't have to travel so far to receive treatment."

"WellStar Cobb Hospital already had a wound center with trained staff and a full schedule," said Nina Evans, RN, MBA, vice president of patient care services at WellStar Cobb Hospital. "We made the decision to partner with the Still Burn Center because we felt that it would have a positive impact on the community.

"In the beginning we didn't know how it would work, from an operating room and examination room perspective, but everyone was excited about trying it. Some of our doctors switched their schedules, and our nurses embraced it, so it has been a true collaborative approach."

On days when they treat burn center patients, WellStar wound center nurses help with patient flow in the morning so that the Augusta staff can see as many patients as possible and still have time to operate in the afternoon.

"The old method for treating burns was to scrub and clean them daily. That can wash away new cells, irritate the wound bed and promote inflammation and scarring," Hills said. "[Now] we can apply a skin substitute that requires no dressing changes and allows the wound to heal on its own."

The team is now seeing about 18 to 20 patients a day and may increase its hours in Atlanta if the numbers keep increasing. Besides bringing specialized care to patients, the team is also providing education for the medical community.

"When we do a new procedure in the OR, we might have 10 to 15 people in there watching and asking questions," Hills said. "We also do a lot of outreach education. We travel all over the Southeast talking to ER and hospital staff about the proper care for burn patients."

Evans said that WellStar has been pleased with the collaboration.

"The specialists who come are phenomenal people and so dedicated," she said. "When you see what it means to the patients, it makes working out all the details manageable."