Burn Rehabilitation Backgrounder
St. John’s Rehab is the only hospital in Ontario solely dedicated to specialized rehabilitation. As the site of Canada’s first and Ontario’s only dedicated burn rehabilitation program, we are the national leader in delivering inpatient and outpatient treatment.
- As a provincial provider, patients are referred to our program from hospitals and physicians across Ontario.
- The rehabilitation team develops realistic goals and timelines with each patient and keeps in close contact with the patient and his or her family. This helps achieve maximum recovery, independence and quality of life.
- Our highly skilled and committed multidisciplinary rehab team includes physiotherapists, occupational therapists, nurses, speech-language pathologists, pharmacists, physicians, dietitians, social workers, psychologists and spiritual care.
- Expertise in intensive wound management.
- Consultations with an external network of acute care burn specialists are available as required. For example, bi-weekly burn clinics are held at the hospital and involve specialists from the Ross Tilley Burn Centre at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.
- Once discharged, patients can benefit from a seamless continuum of care by being referred to our outpatient rehabilitation program.
- The specialized Back on Track Program serves clients who sustain burns in motor vehicle and work-related accidents. We are a specialty provider of services for clients of the Workplace Safety Insurance Board (WSIB).
- Comprehensive interdisciplinary care with an established reputation and specialization in return to work programming and management of psychological issues.
- Electrical injury specialists. Canada’s only dedicated electrical injury rehab program – customized comprehensive assessment and care to people who have been living with the adverse, often invisible effects of electrical injuries.
- Partnered with Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, currently publishing research on electrical injuries.
St. John’s Rehab burn program patients (April 2009 – March 2010)
- Total inpatient beds: 6
- Inpatients admitted: 38
- Outpatient visits: 9,091
- Typical length of inpatient stay: varies according to the complexity of the injury
- Average age of patients: 48 years old
- Patients aged 55 or older: 32 per cent
- Gender of patients: 74 per cent male, 26 per cent female
Canadian burn facts
- The Ontario Workplace Safety Insurance Board reported 1,076 of lost time claims due to burns by heat, 266 burns by chemical and 37 burns by electrical injuries (2008).
In 2004, the National Trauma Registry reported:
- In 2001-2002, there were over 200,000 hospitalizations due to injury. 1.7% (over 3,400) hospitalizations were due to burn injuries.
- The majority of burn injuries occurred in Ontario and the most affected age group was between 35-44 years old.
- The most common burn was contact with a hot substance or object resulting in 1,414 hospitalizations.
- The most frequent season for burn injury was the summer (June, July and August) with 3,109 hospitalizations.
- Burn patients spent on average 12.2 days in the hospital; 2% died in hospital.