Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit (CVICU)

 

Location 725 Welch Road 2nd Floor - 2 North Palo Alto, CA 94304

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

Cardiovascular Intensive Care at the Children’s Heart Center

The Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit (CVICU) at the Children’s Heart Center provides advanced critical care to children with congenital (present at birth) and acquired (develops after birth) heart disease. We also care for selected adults with congenital heart disease.
 
The majority of our patients are admitted following heart surgery or heart transplantation. We also care for children with heart failure or arrhythmias and for those who need intensive care support after cardiac catheterization.
 
The CVICU is a 20 bed unit on the 2nd Floor of Packard Children’s Hospital.

• Seven beds are designed for newborns and young infants who require cardiac intensive care.
• Thirteen beds are in private or semi-private rooms with storage areas for personal belongings.
• A diagnostic information center is located within the unit where surgeons and medical teams can view all catheterization lab, echocardiogram and imaging results.
• An elevator connects the CVICU with the Ford Family Surgery Center two floors below to quickly transport your child to and from surgery.

 

CVICU Services

Specialists within the CVICU offer a complete range of cardiac intensive care services, including:

• Preoperative, postoperative and posttransplant care
• The most advanced therapies available to treat children with heart failure, arrhythmias and pulmonary hypertension 
• All forms of mechanical circulatory support, including extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) and ventricular assist devices (VADs), including the Berlin Heart

In addition, the Heart Center team is available at all times to assist with:

• Echocardiography 
• Cardiac catheterization 
• Evaluation and management of patients with complex electrophysiologic, heart failure, arrhythmias, pulmonary hypertension or heart transplantation issues

 

Quality Data

The CVICU’s catheter associated bloodstream infection (CABSI) rate is available online. Our nurses and physicians monitor our CABSI rates very closely. Our staff follows best practices and attends ongoing education sessions to prevent these infections. Publishing our quality data online is another way to help us assess and improve the quality of care we provide.
 
 

Learn More

• Information for Parents 
• Team
•  View a video tour of the CVICU (Windows / QuickTime)
  

Related Information

• Children’s Heart Center
• Packard Kids Connection - A Web site that helps children ages 5-12 to learn what it’s like to come to the hospital.