Burn Center Referral Criteria:

1. Partial thickness burns greater than 10% total body
    surface area (TBSA)

2. Burns that involve the face, hands, feet, genitalia,
    perineum, or major joints

3. Third-degree burns in any age group

4. Electrical burns, including lightning injury

5. Chemical burns

6. Inhalation injury

7. Burn injury in patients with preexisting medical disorders
    that could complicate management, prolong recovery, or
    affect mortality

8. Any patients with burns and concomitant trauma (such as
    fractures) in which the burn injury poses the greatest risk
    of morbidity or mortality. In such cases, if the trauma
    poses the greater immediate risk, the patient may be
    initially stabilized in a trauma center before being
    transferred to a burn unit. Physician judgment will be
    necessary in such situations and should be in concert with
    the regional medical control plan and triage protocols.

9. Burned children in hospitals without qualified personnel
    or equipment for the care of children

10. Burn injury in patients who will require special
      social, emotional, or long-term rehabilitative intervention.

(from the American Burn Association)

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