​Burn Services and Resources at UPMC Mercy

The Burn Center at UPMC Mercy provides comprehensive support for patients at every phase of their burn injury, including emergency care, treatment for burn shock, and surgical repair to longer-term rehabilitation and reconstruction. Our services include:

Inpatient Services

• Specialized triage and treatment in our Emergency Department by experts in burn care.
• Medical and surgical treatments that include the latest techniques in burn surgery and burn reconstructive surgery.
• Acute care in a dedicated 9-bed intensive care Burn Unit, staffed by a team of expert specialists representing many disciplines.
• Extensive follow-up and rehabilitation support.

Outpatient Services

• Treatment of smaller burns (grease, scald, sun)
• Treatment of infected burns
• Management of difficult-to-heal burns
• Specialized treatment of critical areas of the hands and face
• Occupational and physical therapy
• Scar management and treatment (PDF)

Hydrotherapy

The UPMC Mercy Burn Center features state-of-the-art hydrotherapy treatment, which is essential for treating serious burns. Hydrotherapy, which uses warm running water to gently cleanse and help the healing process of a burn injury, promotes healing by softening and removing the dead tissue, and enables new healthy tissue to form.

Additionally, hydrotherapy can:

• Clean the surface of the wound and remove debris.
• Provide a moist environment for wound healing.
• Prevent and treat infection.
• Protect healthy tissue around the burn from trauma.
• Minimize scar tissue formation.

Special Services for Children

Burns can be especially difficult for young patients, who face immense physical, emotional, and social challenges as they recover and heal. Every year, UPMC Mercy treats hundreds of pediatric burn patients, from infants to teens, who account for more than 600 visits to our outpatient burn center.

Our full-service team provides pediatric critical care medicine, pediatric anesthesia, infectious disease support, acute pain management (including oral medication, conscious sedation and nerve blocks), rehabilitation medicine, psychology services and child life therapy. The care we provide is tailored to each patient’s changing needs and age.

Our full-time child life specialist — certified by the Child Life Council — uses the “language of play” to help pediatric patients prepare for tests and treatments. Our professionals work one-on-one to reduce the stress and anxiety faced by pediatric burn patients, comfort them during procedures, and provide emotional support for them and their families throughout hospitalization and outpatient care. For more information about UPMC Mercy’s child life services, please call 412-232-8375.

Additional support services for our young burn patients include peer support groups through the Phoenix Society’s SOAR program, distraction therapy, Pet Friend therapy, and school reintegration programs. Each summer, our patients have the opportunity to attend Camp Susquehanna, offering children with serious burns the opportunity to forge new friendships, develop coping and life skills, and become more independent.

Enchanted Forest for Children

UPMC Mercy Burn Center’s Enchanted Forest is a special playroom featuring an area for burn rehabilitation. Contributed by the Ladies Hospital Aid Society, the Enchanted Forest offers children with burn injuries a welcoming safe haven as they receive care.