Time from accident to admission to a burn intensive care unit: how long does it actually take? A 25-year...

Severe burn injuries often require specialized treatment at a burn center. It is known that prompt admission to an intensive care unit is essential for achieving good outcome. Nevertheless, very little is known about the duration of time before a patient is admitted to a specialized center after a burn injury in Germany, and whether the situation has improved over time. We retrospectively analyzed time from burn injury to admission to the burn intensive care unit in the Cologne-Merheim Medical Center - one of Germany's specialized burn centers - over the last 25 years. Moreover, we analyzed the data based on differences according to time of injury and day of the week, as well as severity of the burn injury. There was no weekend effect with regard to transfer time; instead transfer time was particularly short on a Monday or on Sundays. Furthermore, patients with severe burn injuries of 40-89% total body surface area (TBSA) showed the least differences in transfer time. Interestingly, the youngest and the oldest patients arrived at the burn intensive care unit (BICU) the fastest. This study should help elucidate published knowledge regarding transfer time from the scene of the accident to admission to a BICU in Germany.