Critical care for children
Our pediatric critical care unit, or PCCU, provides around-the-clock care for infants, children and teens with traumatic injuries or life-threatening illnesses, and recovery care services for children after surgery.
We provide more than just intensive care and monitoring. Our services in the PCCU include nutritional support, pain management, complex patient evaluation and anything else your child may need while staying with us. Our team includes doctors, nurses, physical and respiratory therapists, child life specialists, and more, all specially trained to work with children.
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We are also proud to be the first in Michigan to offer pediatric neurocritical care services. These services are provided by a specialized team led by pediatric intensive care and neurology physicians. If your child is in our pediatric intensive care unit, our neurocritical care team works to identify patients early on who are at risk of new or ongoing neurologic injury, then monitors and applies neuroprotective therapies. The goal is to improve outcomes and decrease hospital stay, as neurologic outcomes have the largest impact on quality of life in patients after leaving the pediatric intensive care unit.
Our pediatric cardiac intensive care unit opened in 2019. This six-bed unit allows cardiac patients to receive specialized, multidisciplinary intensive care from the pediatric critical care and Congenital Heart Center teams.
An important part of your child’s health care is your involvement. Parents and guardians are not considered visitors. They are an important part of the care team. Together, we’ll provide your child with the most complete, advanced care in the region.
Our pediatric critical care unit
Features of critical care
Intensive care involves extra machines and additional doctors and other medical personnel, all providing a higher level of care, with constant monitoring to catch any changes in condition as soon as they happen.
Often, a small straw-like tube will be placed into a vein in the arm and kept there for your child's stay so that we do not have to repeatedly be inserting needles for blood samples or administration of fluids, medications and nutrition.
Proper nutrition is an important part of helping your child get well, but your child's condition may make it difficult for him or her to eat normally or be interested in food. We also provide nutrition by way of IV or tube feedings, depending on what is best for your child and his or her condition.
Pain management, paired along with sedation and distraction techniques as appropriate, is designed to maximize your child's comfort and minimize anxiety during procedures that might be painful.
These lung tests measure how well your child is able to breathe. They also help us determine the appropriate levels of treatment for any breathing assistance needs.
Part of ensuring your child's hospital experience is compassionate and kid-friendly is by providing expert levels of sedation during medical procedures and tests, as necessary. Our goal is to minimize any pain or anxiety for your child during his or her time with us.
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