Revisions in the National Burn Repository Improve the Rate of Firefighter Injury Data Capture.

Approximately 60,000 to 70,000 firefighters suffer work-related injuries per year in the United States. Approximately 10% of these injuries occur from burns or smoke inhalation. Previous analyses of the National Burn Repository (NBR) suggest that not all records of firefighter injuries are being captured. Therefore, an additional field was added to the NBR in 2016 to designate if the injury was sustained by a firefighter on duty. The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether the revisions have increased the number of firefighters included in the NBR. Postintervention NBR records from 2016 to 2017 were reviewed and were compared with the data from the previous NBR analyses before the database was modified, 2002 to 2010. The percentage of total U.S. injuries was determined for each time period by dividing the number of NBR entries by the total number of injuries in the United States according the National Fire Protection Agency statistics. The rate of capture was compared between the two time periods. A descriptive analysis of the new data set was then performed. The revised NBR captured 102 firefighter injuries in 2016 to 2017 (a mean of 51), in contrast to a mean of 52.5 per year in the older data set. The total rate of data capture increased from 0.8% of total injuries to 1.22%, as the total number of injuries in the United States decreased. Thirty burn centers reported treating a firefighter injury, compared with 46 over the 9-year period of the previous analysis. Size of burn injury was captured on 68 of 102 patients. Eighty-eight percent had an injury <10% TBSA, 29 patients suffered inhalation injury, and there was no mortality. The revisions in the National Burn Repository have improved the database's ability to provide information related to firefighter burn injury. Preliminary data suggests that rate of NBR capture has increased by approximately 50% as a percentage of total injuries across the United States. However, long-term data is still lacking which will assist in developing targets for outreach, education, and prevention measures.