Advocate Children's Hospital Unveils New Pediatric Cardiac ICU

OAK LAWN, IL — The confetti was flying at last week’s ribbon cutting for the new Busking Family Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at Advocate Children's Hospital in Oak Lawn. The highly specialized unit will provide inpatient cardiac care for the growing number of pediatric patients with congenital heart disease.

Advocate Children's Heart Institute is ranked thirteenth in the country by U.S. News & World Report in pediatric cardiology and cardiovascular surgery. The 16-bed PCICU is designed with family-centered care at the forefront. Private rooms encourage parent participation in their child's care. The unit's state-of-the-art technology includes a next-generation patient monitoring system that consolidates and analyzes patient data from multiple ICU devices onto one single screen. This technology enables doctors and nurses to quickly assess the risk of inadequate oxygen delivery and provides actionable information to the clinical teams, prompting more informed decision-making on the patient.

"A dedicated pediatric cardiac intensive care unit, while clinically most effective, is also unique to many children's hospitals around the country," said Mike Farrell, president of Advocate Aurora Children’s Health, in a news release. "We are extremely grateful to the Busking Family for helping to make it a reality."

Advocate Children's Heart Institute boasts one of the largest pediatric cardiology programs in the Midwest and performs more cardiac surgeries than any other program in Illinois. Each year, the experienced team completes nearly 19,000 procedures, including open heart surgeries, cardiac catheterizations and fetal echo, electrophysiology and echocardiography procedures.

"From spacious private rooms to advanced safety measures, to family-friendly amenities, the new pediatric cardiac intensive care unit is an environment best suited to provide advanced care and comfort for children and families," said Luca Vricella, a pediatric cardiovascular surgeon and chief of pediatric cardiac surgery at Advocate Children's Heart Institute. "Our program is growing, and this new unit allows us to serve more children with complex heart conditions, and ultimately save lives."

To celebrate the opening of the new unit, a ceremony was held July 2. Joining the Advocate Children's Heart Institute team to commemorate the opening was the Kent Family. London Kent, now four years old, underwent open-heart surgery at just three months old at Advocate Children’s Heart Institute. To express their gratitude for London’s care, the Kent family created the Kent Family Fund to assist with the expansion of family programming within the new PCICU. In addition to a traditional ribbon-cutting, hospital leaders, legislators and the Kent Family used confetti poppers to make the day even more memorable.