Augusta, GA - Doctors Hospital unveiled the Fred Mullins, M.D. Tower at the Joseph M. Still Burn Center during a virtual ribbon cutting ceremony on Tuesday, February 9, 2021. While the building is near completion, it is not yet open to the public.
The burn tower, which took nearly two years to complete, is named in memory of Dr. Fred Mullins, the long-time medical director of the burn center and president and founder of Burn and Reconstructive Centers of America (BRCA). Under Dr. Mullins’s leadership, BRCA grew to include 16 locations in nine states. Dr. Mullins passed away unexpectedly in June 2020.
“We celebrated the opening of a multimillion-dollar facility that will give us more capacity to care for our patients and will allow our staff to use their incredible skills and compassion to deliver the world class care that they are known for,” said Doctors Hospital CEO, Doug Welch. “It was also a day of remembrance as we honored the memory of Dr. Fred Mullins whose passionate vision and unparalleled work ethic helped shape burn and wound care around the world, but especially in Augusta, Georgia.”
The tower represents the largest project on the campus since the hospital was built more than 40 years ago. It covers more than 102,214 square feet of new and renovated space, including 20 Burn ICU beds, 28 medical/surgical beds dedicated to burn and wound patients, four additional burn operating rooms and a 15-bay burn PACU. It also expands the burn center’s bed count to 99.
“This is a wonderful testament to the work of my brother and the way he truly cared about each and every patient,” said Frank Mullins, Chairman of BRCA. “He was very excited and invested in this building. We’re honored to have his name on it, and to have his legacy and his work continue for years to come.”
“Every aspect of the new tower was planned with the patient in mind,” said Beretta Craft-Coffman, PA-C, Vice President of Non-Physician Providers at BRCA. “That was what Dr. Mullins always kept in the forefront of our conversations: ‘How does this help our patients?’”
The ribbon cutting ceremony was a private event and was streamed on Facebook due to the COVID-19 pandemic and necessary safety precautions.