Oregon Burn Center Prevention and Education Program





Oregon Burn Center

For over 30 years, the Oregon Burn Center at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center has been providing state-of-the-art burn care to victims of life-threatening burn injuries. One of only 135 burn centers in the country, and the only facility of its kind between Seattle and Sacramento, the Oregon Burn Center (OBC) are a leader and innovator in burn assessment, treatment and rehabilitation. More than 60 local hospitals and urgent care facilities rely on OBC as the ultimate source of treatment for their most serious burn patients.

The OBC Burn Education and Prevention Program

Established in 2000, The Burn Education and Prevention Program seeks to:

  • Prevent burns through critical education and outreach to those populations most at risk.
  • Train medical staff in burn treatment in order to provide high quality care that can minimize injury when burns occur.

    The program provides a range of educational presentations, workshops and curriculum appropriate for a wide variety of audiences and settings to increase burn safety, knowledge and awareness throughout Oregon and SW Washington. The program is customized for any group or professional organization at no cost to them, serving an important community need to reduce the number and severity of burn injuries.

    In the past year alone, educational presentations have been made to 110 groups, reaching over 15,000 people in the region. These audiences included utility workers, children, parents, seniors, burn-survivors, healthcare students, healthcare providers, paramedics, firefighters and other emergency response teams. Staff have participated in many health and safety fairs, and shared information with burn injury experts.

    Why We Need Support

    More than 1 million individuals in the United States are affected by burns each year, and work-related burns are a leading cause of occupational injury. In Oregon, fire/burns are the third leading cause of accidental death to children under the age five. Additionally, a recent study indicated that approximately 360 workers in Oregon experience burns on the job each year. The workers compensation claim costs of these injuries total over $1.6 million annually, and electrical burns were associated with the highest costs among all burn injury types.

    Fortunately, the number of burn incidents across the country has declined each year, due in large part to burn education and prevention programs. In fact, since the Burn Education and Prevention Program started its work in Oregon, the total number of reported electrical burn injuries in the state has gone down by 45%. For Oregon workers, reported electrical burn injuries has dropped by 50%, and by 25% amongst utility workers specifically.

    The Burn Education and Prevention Program relies on support from the community. Please consider sponsoring the Benefit Golf Classic to ensure that the program can continue its critical work preventing burns among children, adults, seniors and high-risk professionals and educating healthcare professionals on the specialized treatment and care of burn injuries.

    To share life-saving information with your community, co-workers and employers, Please call the Burn Education and Prevention Program at (503) 413-4398

    Learn more at http://www.legacyhealth.org/body.cfm?id=763&oTopID=763&PLinkID=46