UCI Health Regional Burn Center receives funds for critical training
Insurance grant to boost educational efforts for first responders
November 21, 2014
The UCI Health Regional Burn Center has received a $5,594 grant from SullivanCurtisMonroe Insurance Services and Fireman's Fund Insurance Company to fund training for emergency responders about effectively providing emergency care of burn patients.
This training program will encompass a series of lectures, case studies and simulations to reinforce assessment, stabilization and the American Burn Association criteria for transfer to a burn center.
“Due to a decline in funding, we are no longer able to meet the needs of an increased demand for pre-hospital burn education,” said Dr. Victor Joe, director of UCI Health Regional Burn Center. “This training will leverage firefighters' and paramedics' abilities to become more comprehensive first responders who are skilled in providing burn patient care.”
The grant is part of a nationwide philanthropic program funded by Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company and which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. The program provides needed equipment, training and educational tools to local fire department and burn prevention organizations. Since 2004, Fireman’s Fund has awarded grants to more than 2,100 different organizations totaling more than $31 million – including more than $9 million in California. Independent insurance agencies and brokers that sell Fireman’s Fund products, like SullivanCurtisMonroe, are able to direct these grants to support their communities.
SullivanCurtisMonroe has distributed grants worth more than $225,000 in Southern California since 2004.
“We are grateful for the UCI Health Regional Burn Center and all they do for burn survivors and their families,” said Jeannine Coronado Eckenweiler of SullivanCurtisMonroe Insurance Services. “This grant allows the burn center to provide critical training to emergency responders and we’re proud to help in such a meaningful way.”
Dr. Joe and burn program manager Jennifer Cash noted that program analyst Ray Phonethepha was instrumental in securing the grant.
This is not the first grant UC Irvine’s burn program has received. In 2012, SullivanCurtisMonroe Insurance Services and Fireman's Fund Insurance Company bestowed more than $16,000 to the center’s new Burn Prevention To-Go program – 175 kits that include smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, fire extinguishers, scald prevention water temperature monitors, and electrical outlet and stove knob covers.
UCI Health Regional Burn Center at the UC Irvine Medical Center in Orange is Orange County’s only American College of Surgeons-certified burn unit and annually treats more than half of the county’s burn victims. UC Irvine has led the nation in burn care with advanced surgical techniques, innovations in synthetic skin treatments and expert patient care. Each year, more than 600 patients are treated for burns of all kinds – and one-third of these patients are children.
