Clinical Overview

The Burn Center at Grady Memorial Hospital is one of the largest in the country and the only one in Georgia backed by a Level I trauma center. The Burn Center provides complete care to burn victims of all ages, whether their burns result from flames, scalds, chemical, or electrical accidents.

The Grady Burn Center is one of the busiest burn centers in the country, caring for both adult and pediatric burn patients as well as individuals with complicated skin diseases and infections.

Patients suffering from traumatic burns are treated in the Burn Center's Intensive Care Unit until stable. Beyond critical care, the Burn Center offers outpatient services for minor burns and follow-up care for wounds and major burns.

The Burn Center's multidisciplinary team is staffed by faculty surgeons of the Emory University School of Medicine, Grady nurses, and such specialists as physical therapists, social workers, psychologists, occupational therapists, dietitians, and chaplains.

For the most detailed and comprehensive information on the center, please visit the official Grady Burn Center website.

Training

The Grady Burn Center provides Emory's general surgery residents with the opportunity to participate in the assessment and resuscitation of burn patients, burn wound management, skin grafting, reconstruction, and long-term follow-up care. The center also offers a one-year burn fellowship.

The Legacy of Dr. Walter Ingram

Until his untimely passing in July 2022, Dr. Walter Ingram had been the medical director of the Burn Center since 1992. He presided over a program that grew to treating more than 3,500 adult and pediatric burn patients per year, and dedicated himself to fine-tuning the center's capabilities through standardizing wound care protocols, expanding hydrotherapy facilities, upgrading and refining pain control processes, and initiating services for patients with complex wound problems secondary to burns.

Under Dr. Ingram's leadership, the center nearly doubled in size, maintained its status as the only comprehensive burn center in Atlanta, and became one of the most highly rated burn programs in the country.

Current Faculty Team

Dr. Laura Johnson, who did her fellowship in trauma and surgical critical care at Grady, is the medical director of the Burn Center. In addition to her clinical activities, Dr. Johnson is deeply committed to translational research; education; mentoring trainees across a range of disciplines; lecturing; and publishing on burn, trauma, and ethics topics.

Dr. Juvonda Hodge is the Burn Center's assistant medical director. Prior to coming to Emory, she served on the faculty of the College of Allied Health Professions of the University of South Alabama, and was associate director of the burn unit at the University of South Alabama Medical Center.