BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- The Grossman Burn Center at San Joaquin Community Hospital received a large donation Tuesday night to help open the permanent home of the in-patient facility.

Officials with San Joaquin Community Hospital, the world renown Grossman Burn Center and Occidental Petroleum made the announcement at the Petroleum Club that Occidental is donating $200,000 to the in-patient facility at the county's first and only burn center.

It's a donation that will help get that part of the facility up and running at it's permanent location in the hospital.

Patients fill the rooms of the South Tower Third Floor, but soon the rooms will be converted into the Grossman Burn Center's in-patient facility, once the state approves the plan.

But while the conversion must still take place the facility is already operating.

"Because the need was so great we went ahead and opened an in-patient area in our second floor ICU area," said Jarrod McNaughton, Vice President of San Joaquin Community Hospital.

That need is from an unexpected number of patients seeking treatment at both the in- and out-patient facilities.

"Those numbers have really blown us away," McNaughton said. "Our original projection was going to be 120 to 130 in-patients per year and in just this short amount of time we're already at 150."

And that is just since June, when the facility formally opened, which perhaps highlights how badly needed the center was.

"Sometimes things just come out of the wood work more," McNaughton said. "If it was minor burns now being treated on an out-patient unit level, but definitely the need is obviously there because of the number of burns being treated."

And with Tuesday night's donation, that puts the hospital just $300,000 away from its goal of $1.5 million.

"We're very excited as a hospital but also our entire community as a whole that (Occidental) has stepped up to the plate to do that for us," McNaughton said.

And San Joaquin is hoping to get that last $300,000 by the end of the year, as officials are looking for a company or individual to cover that entire dollar amount and have the in-patient facility named in their honor.