In recent decades, research and advances in treatment have contributed to significant improvements to burn care, and the quality of life following injury. Nevertheless, significant evidence gaps and high variations in clinical practice remain; the effects of which are largely unknown. The Burn Registry of Australia and New Zealand (BRANZ) collects data on patients admitted to all 17 Australian and New Zealand specialist burns units regarding burn injury, pre-existing conditions, clinical quality indicators, and in-hospital outcomes. As such, the BRANZ is an ideal platform to close knowledge gaps and inform best practices.
A successful grant from the HCF Research Foundation in late 2017 has allowed for a detailed analysis of BRANZ data to quantify practice variation and establish if, and how this variation impacts patient outcomes. This is an important piece of work as it sets the standard for the future, and will drive quality improvement initiatives and the development of best practice guidelines with great potential to improve the quality of burn care and patient outcomes in the region.
This presentation will summarise key findings from the final stage of data analysis. The implications of the final data analysis will be discussed, and we will present the necessary next steps to use BRANZ data and the binational Burn Quality Improvement Program as quantitative bases to drive improvements in burn care and patient outcomes.