Children's Hospital

Divisions/Specialties

Division of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine

The Division of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine manages the University of Maryland's Children's Hospital's Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), a 24-bed facility that provides expert multi-disciplinary care for young patients with life-threatening medical and surgical conditions. Our physicians have committed to 24/7 in-house attending staffing of the PICU, putting our most talented experts at the bedside of the sickest, most vulnerable patients around the clock. Ours is one of the first PICUs in the country to provide staffing at this highest level.

In addition, our Pediatric ECMO Program provides care for children who need life-saving cardiopulmonary support.

The division also maintains a 14-bed pediatric intermediate care unit to care for children with special needs or who require close monitoring. Both units are staffed by pediatric intensivists, specialized teams of nurses, respiratory therapists, social workers and other allied health professionals. Pediatric Critical Care nurse practitioners help coordinate the care of our most complicated patients.

Patient Conditions

• Acute illnesses of any etiology, including but not limited to:
  • Respiratory failure
  • Neurologic emergency
  • Poisoning
  • Severe infection
  • Severe traumatic injury
  • Hemodynamic instability and shock states
  • Metabolic and genetic diseases
  • Multiple system organ failure
  • Cardiac failure and acute rhythm problems
  • Solid organ transplantation
  • Oncologic problems and patients following bone marrow transplant
• Post-operative management following:
  • Open-heart surgery for congenital heart disease and heart transplant
  • Neurological surgery for tumors, injuries and vascular malformations
  • Any procedures requiring close monitoring and with the potential for hemodynamic instability
  • Renal Transplantation

Comprehensive Evaluations

• Patient care is orchestrated by the attending pediatric intensivist who freely calls upon any and all necessary subspecialists. A wide array of state-of-the-art monitoring (invasive and non-invasive) and diagnostic techniques are matched to the specific needs of the patient

Specialized Treatments

• Age and size-specific
• Dependent upon patient requirements
• Special emphasis on pediatric pain control
• Child life specialists involved in all aspects of care in the PICU and intermediate care units
• Families become an integral part of their child's care team

Research Activities

• Patient safety
• Mobile telemedicine
• Outcomes
• Mitochondrial response to traumatic brain injury

Special Programs

• Maryland ExpressCare for Kids critical care transport service provides interhospital transport of critically ill patients
• Maryland CARES program provides continuing medical education in the community, including pediatric advanced life support (PALS), Safe Kids and other programs to physicians, nurses, allied health care providers and families
• PICC line service provides percutaneously inserted central catheters for pediatric patients who need intravenous medications for 2 to 6 weeks; available for inpatients only

Services to Physicians

• Consultation on complicated cases
• Second opinions
• Evaluation of patient conditions
• Special treatment procedures
• Short-term and long-term management
• Transport of critically ill/injured patients to UMMC at request of referring physicians through Maryland ExpressCare for Kids
• Training in pediatric advanced life support (PALS). "First responder," pediatric basic life support (BLS) and office preparedness programs are available. Other types of educational programs are arranged on request.