Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit (CVICU)

Important Change to Hospital Visitation Policy

Effective October 19, 2009, Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital will no longer allow non-patient visitors or family members under the age of 16 years to visit in the hospital. This policy will be in effect during the height of the flu season, usually lasting until spring, and will be re-evaluated at that time. Learn more about the visitation policy change / Lea más acerca del cambio en las normas de visitas.

 

Location Lucile Packard Children's Hospital 2 North 725 Welch Road Palo Alto, CA 94304

Phone: (650) 724-2926 Fax: (650) 725-0848

Services Overview

The Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit (CVICU) is a 20-bed unit where cardiac critical care is provided to pediatric patients with congenital and acquired heart disease as well as selected adults with congenital heart disease.  The nursing staff is dedicated to the intensive care of cardiac patients and the medical faculty includes pediatric cardiac intensivists, pediatric cardiologists, pediatric general intensivists and pediatric cardiac anesthesiologists. 
 
The medical faculty collaborates closely with the pediatric and adult cardiothoracic surgery faculty to manage postoperative cardiac patients.  Other CVICU team members include pediatric cardiology, pediatric critical care medicine, and cardiothoracic surgery fellows, ICU hospitalists, pediatric residents and a CVICU nurse practitioner. 

The majority of patients are admitted for intensive care following congenital heart surgery or heart transplantation.  A complete range of cardiac intensive care services are available, including mechanical circulatory support with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) and ventricular assist devices (VADs). 
 
Subspecialists from the Division of Pediatric Cardiology at LPCH are available at all times to assist with echocardiography, cardiac catheterization, and evaluation and management of patients with complex electrophysiologic, heart failure, pulmonary hypertension and cardiac transplantation issues, as well as adults with complex congenital heart disease. 
 

Tour the CVICU

If your child will be a patient in the CVICU and you would like an in-person tour, please call the LPCH Information Desk at (650) 497-8005.  Tours walk through the CVICU, parents lounge and surgical waiting area.  You will also get an introduction to unit protocol, visiting guidelines and our staff.  Spanish speaking tour guides are available.

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Information for Referring Physicians

Patients can be referred for admission to the CVICU by:

1. Calling the CVICU directly and discussing the patient with the CVICU medical attending
2. Contacting one of the Division of Pediatric Cardiology or Division of Pediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery faculty at LPCH

Faculty and Staff

• James P. Andrus, MD
• Ritu Asija, MD
• Michael J. Cisco, MD
• David Cornfield, MD
• Lorry R. Frankel, MD, MBA  
• Deborah Franzon, MD
• Gregory B. Hammer, MD
• N. Patricia Jines, MD
• Saraswati Kache, MD
• Zsofia Long, MD
• Heidi Magdo, MD
• Sushma Reddy, MD
• Stephen J. Roth, MD, MPH — Medical Director, CVICU
• Arash Sabati, MD
• Andrew Shin, MD
• Ellie Taft – Nurse Manager, CVICU
• Wendy Whiteside, MD
• Gail E. Wright, MD
• Justin Yeh, MD  
• Michelle Zebrack, MD