Pediatric Intensive Care
The Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital is a 28-bed intensive and acute care unit for neonates, infants, children and adolescents who become critically ill or injured. We realize that having a child in the PICU is a scary and emotional time. Our goal is to provide your child with safe, appropriate, comprehensive, individualized, interdisciplinary and patient- and family-centered care in a compassionate and nurturing environment.
Outstanding Care 24 Hours a Day, 7 Days a Week
Our PICU is staffed by board-certified and fellowship-trained pediatric intensive care physicians who provide in-house medical and surgical care 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They communicate regularly with pediatric subspecialists and primary care physicians regarding coordination of care, discharge and follow-up. Additionally, specially trained critical care nurses provide care for patients of all illness levels.
The PICU at Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital offers:
- Daily multidisciplinary rounds, to which parents are invited to participate in order to learn about their child's treatment plan
- Evening nurse report with parents at bedside
- Patient and family advocate for support during hospitalization experience
- Child life specialist team for developmentally appropriate medical play and distraction interventions
- Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), a lifesaving procedure for patients with severe respiratory or cardiopulmonary problems
- A dedicated pediatric transport team that is PICU-based and allows the team members to maintain their critical care skills in the field
- Dedicated pediatric intensive care team of physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists, pharmacists, social workers, patient care associates, care coordinators and child life specialists
- Unrestricted visiting hours for families
- Conine Clubhouse, a place for families to stay while their children are being cared for at the hospital
Patient Services and Procedures
The following represent unit-specific patient services and procedures provided in PICU:
- Intensive/acute medical-surgical care
- Invasive/non-invasive monitoring
- Invasive/noninvasive diagnostic procedures (e.g., bronchoscopy, transesophageal echocardiaogram, polysomnogram, lumbar puncture, electroencephalogram, electrocardiogram, pH probe)
- Moderate sedation
- Trauma care
- Cardiac care
- Cardiac transplant care
- Nonsurgical placement of central vascular access devices
- Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation
- Neurosurgical care
- Neuro-invasive device insertion
- Craniofacial surgical care
- Continuous veno-venous/veno-arterial hemofiltration/dialysis
- Peritoneal dialysis
- Nitric oxide therapy
- Heliox therapy
- Ventilator support
- Intubation
- Respiratory therapy
- Oncological/hematological care
- Exchange transfusion therapy
- Chemotherapy administration
- Ground/air transport
Types of equipment utilized in PICU:
- Centralized monitoring system
- Intra-cranial monitoring equipment
- IV pumps
- Syringe pumps
- Blood chemistry/gas measurement machines
- Non-invasive blood pressure monitoring machines
- Pulse oximeters
- Cerebral oximeters
- End-tidal CO2 monitors
- Venous oxygen saturation monitors
- IV fluid warmers
- Blood-glucose measurement machine
- Oto/opthalmoscopes
- Peripheral nerve stimulator
- Pulse dopplers
- Mechanical ventilators
- Continuous veno-venous/veno-arterial hemofiltration/dialysis machine
- Peritoneal dialysis machine
- Extra-corporeal membranous oxygenation machine
- Train-of-four stimulator
- Neonatal open warmers
- Neonatal transport systems
