Outpatient facilities and cost analysis of minor burn patients in a university hospi̇tal

Burns have been one of the main causes of death with tecnological development in industy. Unfortunately, burn and fire disaster-experiences of mankind have been arised from simply preventable events. Although it is expensive to treat the burn trauma, there is a limited number of studies which concern with the issue. Minor burns are treated in outpatient manner. Minor burn trauma may affect the victim's quality of life with pain, scars and functional losses. Because of these undesirable results, cost-effective management of minor burns are becoming a current issue in modern burn-care approach. The aim of our study was to investigate the relationship between quality and cost-effectivity of burn care for the minor burn cases who were treated in an outpatient manner inthe Burn Unit of a University hospital which belongs to a foundation. Subjects of the study were 240 patients who were terated between Jant he 1st- June the 30th 2014. They were treated at Outpatient Service of the Burn Unit in Baskent University Ankara Hospital. Ages, sexes, burn causes, total body surface areas (TBSA) burned, burn depths, the number and the nature of the interventions, costs of the materials and drugs used in the wound dressings, and costs of the interventions according to 'Socal Security Institution' prices, the prices which are predicted by the hospital and the prices which are precited according to Turkish Medical Association were evaluated. According to our results, there were no statistically significant differences in the costs of out-patient therapies of the minor burns in regards of age, sex, burn cause, and TBSA burned. The factors that influence the costs were burn depths, the number of the interventions and the nature of the interventions.