Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU)
Brenner Children’s Hospital’s pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) is one of the largest PICUs in western North Carolina. Our specially trained clinicians use the latest in cutting-edge technology to care for very sick infants and children. Brenner’s PICU is specially designed for children; our intensive care unit team provides the highest level of care for pediatric patients of all ages in our 19 ICU and intermediate care beds.
Our pediatric intensive care specialists, nurses, respiratory therapists, social workers, clinical psychologists, nutritionists and other health care professionals are all specially trained to provide critical care for pediatric patients. We work with a team of more than 120 multidisciplinary pediatric specialists at Brenner, including pediatric surgeons, pediatric gastroenterologists and pediatric anesthesiologists, to create individualized treatment plans for each child we treat.
We understand how critical a child’s parents are to the health care team and encourage parents to visit and stay with their children in the PICU anytime, day or night. Our team of health care professionals works closely with parents to identify concerns and explain all treatment plans thoroughly and we maintain continual communication with our patients’ pediatricians during the entire period of treatment.
Learn more about Brenner’s PICU services, our expert pediatric intensive care specialists and the conditions we treat in our renowned pediatric intensive care unit.
For information about our health care services for critically ill premature newborns, please visit our neonatal intensive care unit section.
PICU Goes VAP Free
On August 2, 2012, the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) celebrated their success in going two years without a ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). They actually reached the two-year milestone on July 26.
A year ago, the PICU staff negotiated an incentive with nurse manager Heath Earley. If they increased their VAP bundle compliance percentages and remained VAP-free for two years, he would allow them to shave his head.