Nassau County Firefighters Burn Center
Serious burns are among the most life-threatening and hard-to-treat medical emergencies. Thanks in part to the generosity of the Nassau County Firefighter Burn Center Fund, Nassau University Medical Center is home to a $6.7 million, 12,000-square-foot burn center that is one of the best staffed, most technologically sophisticated facilities in the United States. There, specialized surgeons and nurses use sophisticated equipment designed to ease patients’ excruciating pain, fend off complications and promote healing.
Able to treat as many as 10 patients at one time, NuHealth’s Nassau County Firefighters Burn Center includes a four-bed critical care unit and a six-bed unit for acute care. Similar to intensive care beds, each room has a glass front in continuous view of the nurses’ station. Each room is carefully climate-controlled, and contains a roll-in shower, specialized mattresses with circulating air, and beds that automatically turn immobile patients to prevent further skin damage. The unit also features a Hubbard tank room to clean wounds, a horizontal shower room and a physical therapy area.
At the Burn Center, a compassionate and experienced staff of plastic surgeons, critical care specialists and nurses with special expertise in caring for burn victims use the very latest techniques and technologies, such as synthetic material that serves as a temporary skin substitute and helps prevent infection the worst danger for victims of serious burns.
The road to recovery from serious burns can be a long one, and it takes more than the immediate care of physicians and nurses to heal the damage of such a traumatic event. Along with our extraordinary medical staff, patients receive the support of physical and occupational therapists, rehabilitation specialists, psychologists, psychiatrists, a nutritionist and a chaplain. New to this support team is a peer support program called SOAR, Survivors Offering Assistance in Recovery. This hospital based program is offered through the Phoenix Society, and advocates for peer support to assist burn patients in adapting to a burn injury through sharing similar experiences.
For more information about NuHealth’s Nassau County Firefighters Burn Center at Nassau University Medical Center, call (516) 572-3207.
Clinical Staff
Burn Center Director Roger Simpson, MD