Children's Medical Center is a private, non-profit hospital affiliated with The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. Children's Medical Center of Dallas was created in 1913 and is now a 406-bed state-of-the-art facility that serves as the only free-standing children's hospital in Dallas. The building is physically connected to Parkland Memorial Hospital and The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. In 1996, the pediatric services and the pediatric trauma intensive care unit at Parkland became part of Children's Medical Center, allowing full integration of staff, medical technology, information systems, education and administration.
In February 2001, an 11-bed cardiac intensive care unit was opened under the direction of critical care services. In November, 2003, we opened two 22-bed units that consist of a 22-bed medical/surgical ICU, an 11-bed trauma ICU, and an 11-bed intermediate care ICU.
The pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), the pediatric cardiac intensive care unit (CVICU), and pediatric trauma intensive care unit (PTICU) are primary referral centers for North Central and Northeast Texas. Patients with special needs are also referred from throughout Texas, as well as Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mexico and Latin America. Children's Medical Center is a major center for referral of pediatric infectious disease, pediatric pulmonary, pediatric cardiology, cardiothoracic surgery, transplantation (liver, kidney, heart and bone marrow) and all forms of pediatric surgery. In 2004, approximately 2645 patients were admitted to the PICU, CVICU, and PTICU.
The Children's Medical Center PICU has 22 intensive care beds, all of which are single room beds. The PICU admits a mixture of medical, surgical, neonatal and pediatric patients, and emphasizes the care of patients with cardiopulmonary and surgical problems including septic shock, acute lung injury, trauma, cardiac disease, gastrointestinal surgery, oncology, neurologic disorders, ingestions, renal disease, liver disease, endocrine disorders, and hepatic, renal, heart and bone marrow transplantation. We have active pediatric/neonatal ECMO (25-30 cases per year), high frequency oscillatory ventilation, nitric oxide, flexible bronchoscopy and pediatric transport services. We are a leader in the development of novel therapeutics for sepsis and ventilation/oxygenation support services (VOSS). The PTICU is an 11-bed pediatric trauma and medical-surgical intensive care unit. Both the PICU and PTICU are staffed and operated by faculty and fellows of the division of pediatric critical care medicine. Both units have a state-of-the-art information system (Eclipsys) that includes both clinical documentation and decision support/research databases. In addition, an 11-bed Level II PICU serves as a short-stay intermediate unit for selected critically ill patients who require intensive care observation, but few ongoing interventions, e.g., post-operative craniofacial repairs, tracheostomy decannulation, etc.
The CVICU is currently 17 beds, serving a caseload of approximately 350 open-heart and 150 closed-heart procedures per year.
Since 1977 the department of pediatrics has maintained a fellowship in critical care medicine. The fellowship was developed using guidelines of the Society for Critical Care Medicine, the American Board of Pediatrics Subspecialty Board of Critical Care Medicine and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. The program is approved by the ACGME for subspecialty training.
