Critical Care

The Division of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine had its inception in 1999 with the arrival of the Medical Director, Dr. Charles L. Schleien. The faculty presently consists of 15 members: John Scott Baird, MD, Katherine V. Biagas, MD, Pamela Feuer, MD, Sandeep Gangadharan, MD, George Hardart, MD, MPH, E. Heidi Jerome, MD, Abhijit Lohe, MD, Marilyn C. Morris, MD, George Ofori-Amanfo, MD, Logeswary Rajagopalan, MD, Thyyar Ravindranath, MD, Arthur J. Smerling, MD, Susan J. Vannucci, PhD, Michael Wilhelm, MD, and Dr. Charles L. Schleien, MD.

The Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital presently consists of 41 beds. The Critical Care division oversees the 14 bed Cardiac ICU, recently opened within the new hospital tower as well as a 27 bed general Pediatric ICU. 28 of the 41 total beds are state-of-the-art isolation, family-friendly, glass-enclosed cubicles.

All critically ill children in the institution are taken care of in the PICU/Cardiac ICU. These include all children with critical medical illness including such diseases as asthma, seizures, meningitis and encephalitis. Trauma care is delivered to all patients needing intensive care with particular expertise in head trauma and multi-organ trauma. All surgical patients needing intensive care make up over half of the admissions and these include patients following surgery for complex congenital heart disease, neurosurgery, ENT, orthopedics, and ophthalmology. A full time transport system allows us to bring patients to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit from our network hospitals, other hospitals within the tri-state area and beyond. The transport system is covered by our trained paramedics and Pediatric Critical Care fellows when needed.

Education and research are central themes of the Critical Care division. The division which received its Pediatric Critical Care Fellowship accreditation in 2000, and had its first graduating class in 2003, now has 9 fellows. This is a 3-year fellowship for board certified pediatricians. Joint fellowship in cardiology, pulmonology, anesthesiology and others are available, as well as programs in public health, statistics, and epidemiology. Additionally, pediatric residents as well as others (i.e. anesthesiology, emergency department) rotate through the unit on clinical rotation. Many medical students from the Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons, as well as medical schools in the area rotate through the PICU. We also have a large nurse practitioner program, presently with 8 NP's who actively participate in clinical care, formulation of practice, as well as research projects.