When A. Richard Grossman established the Grossman Burn Center in 1969, it consisted of two beds in Sherman Oaks Hospital. The center then grew to five beds and from there six times its size, making it one of the largest burn centers west of the Mississippi by the late 1970s. Today, the Grossman Burn Center is internationally renowned and counts Western Medical Center in Santa Ana as a partner, along with Sherman Oaks Hospital. Now, under the leadership of burn physician Dr. Peter Grossman and Business Development Director Roy Forbes, the burn center will launch an initiative to replicate its burn treatment concept to 10 new partners in the next five years. The agreement with the first new partner, which burn center officials declined to name, will kick off later this year. While new agreements with additional partners have yet to be made, the burn center is eyeing potentials in regions with high concentrations of industrial trades. “We’re looking at Las Vegas, Arizona, Texas,” said Peter Grossman, who joined his father, A. Richard Grossman, in practice in 1995. In some regions of the country, according to Forbes, a burn center may not be found for 500 miles. By partnering with medical facilities across the country, the burn center will not only provide an opportunity for burn victims to receive more treatment options but also to expand into virgin territory of sorts. However, Grossman and Forbes are adamant that the burn center isn’t simply franchising. “It shouldn’t just be an add-on to what is available in the company,” Grossman said. In contrast, the burn center will play an integral role in the operations of its partner centers. Implementation of the center’s treatment procedures will not be left to outsiders. Instead, there will be a direct correlation between what happens in partner locations and at Grossman. The partners will have the same structure, surgery base and community outreach efforts. “We will be practically the same,” Grossman said. “We have the same goals and desires.” The major challenge facing Grossman Burn Center as it tries to expand is convincing hospitals that forming a partnership with the facility will be profitable. According to Grossman, burn centers have a reputation for being losing entities for hospitals. He believes that Grossman Burn Center has been able to make a profit for them though he wouldn’t disclose how much of one by employing three strategies: keeping insurance professionals abreast of its treatment procedures, maintaining a long-term stable of physicians and hiring doctors who are experts in the center’s techniques. “We are not rotating burn center physicians,” Grossman said. “The physicians have a bit of longevity opposed to a university hospital. Our doctors are here for the long haul. Patients get adequate care and it is done in a way that is financially prudent for insurers. Patients know who their doctor is from start to finish.” The burn center’s reputation as an innovator has also been helpful. Rather than give burn patients one surgery in which their wound is treated and (if applicable) grafted with skin from a healthy part of the body, Grossman Burn Center adheres to a two-stage surgical methodology. In the first phase, the patient’s wound is treated and grafted with cadaver skin. In the second phase, which takes place once the cadaver skin is allowed to settle, the patient’s own skin is used for a permanent graft. The burn center staff believes that this technique increases the likelihood of the permanent graft being successful. They also feel that it minimizes graft loss and scarring. Center physicians not only specialize in making burn victims functional again but in plastic surgery to allow patients the opportunity to retain as much of their pre-injury appearance as possible. To address the mental health needs of patients, Grossman Burn Center also provides patients with psychologists. Because of its reputation, California patients have come to the center from as far as Bishop, while burn victims around the world have traveled to the center from places such as Indonesia, Iraq, Iran, Korea, Afghanistan, China and Nigeria. In addition to its reputation, Forbes believes that the burn center’s financial success can be attributed to the center providing detailed documentation to insurers and access to physicians, a rarity in the field, he believes. “We provide a level of service and documentation as well as surgeons who are experienced at what they do as opposed to novices learning on the job,” Forbes said. The center also provides lectures to case managers and adjusters about the center’s services. Telling these professionals about how the center’s techniques typically lessen a patient discomfort, speed up recovery time and garner better end results has proven helpful in alleviating fears that the burn center will be a drain on finances. There is one fear that the center is still seeking to combat, however. Some hospitals worry that if they have a burn center on the premises they will be legally obligated to treat burn patients, even if the patients have no ability to pay for services. In light of this, Grossman said that he has urged hospitals to consider developing philanthropic departments to allow the community to give back to them for serving the needy.
