Clinical Teams

Pediatric Intensive Care Unit

The faculty, fellows, and advanced practitioners in the Section of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine oversee patient care, housestaff education, and administration of the 31-bed pediatric intensive care unit. This is a multi-disciplinary unit with over 1,600 admissions each year including medical, surgical, and transplant patients. While post-operative cardiac patients are admitted to a separate unit, medical cardiology patients are admitted to the PICU. This unit utilizes every available medical technology including high frequency oscillators, continuous veno-venous renal replacement therapy, pheresis, and extra-corporal membrane oxygenation.

Coverage of the PICU consists of two clinical teams. The larger PICU Red Team is composed of housestaff at the PGY two or three level, critical care fellows, and faculty. This team occasionally has rotating visitors at the medical student, resident or fellow level joining them. The smaller PICU Blue Team is composed of critical care fellows, critical care attendings, and advanced practitioners, and also accommodates visitors during several months of each year. Didactic lectures are offered Monday–Thursday for clinicians and staff.

Progressive Care Unit

The section is also responsible for administration of the 36-bed Progressive Care Unit. This unit admits over 1600 patients each year and cares for children with a variety of diagnoses and needs. The PCU functions as a transitional unit for PICU patients, an acute and chronic respiratory care unit, and a post-operative monitoring unit. The PCU has special expertise in the transition to home of technology-dependent children and their families and rehabilitation of long-stay PICU patients.

Coverage of the PCU also consists of two clinical teams. The PCU Red Team is composed of housestaff at the PGY one or two level, critical care fellows, and faculty. The PCU Blue Team is composed of critical care attendings and advanced practitioners. Visiting trainees may join either team.

Transport

The Pediatric Critical Care Medicine Section also staffs the busy Kangaroo Crew Pediatric Transport Team. Performing over 1,200 transports each year, this busy mobile intensive care service covers the greater Houston metropolitan area, southeast Texas, and an ever-expanding range of the southern United States and Central and South American destinations. The separate neonatal and pediatric teams are unit-based with on-line medical direction provided by neonatologists and pediatric intensivists respectively.

The PICU short range Kangaroo Team conducts ground transports within a 60-mile radius of Texas Children's Hospital. This short-range team is led by a critical care fellow and other team members including a specialized pediatric transport nurse, a respiratory therapist and emergency medical technicians. Transports originating greater than 60 miles from Texas Children's are covered by the PICU long range Kangaroo Crew Team and may occur by ground transportation or fixed-wing aircraft. Two dedicated pediatric physicians staff the long-range team and are accompanied by specialized pediatric transport nurses and respiratory therapists. Housestaff on the popular transport elective may join either of these teams.

PICC Service

The Pediatric Critical Care Medicine Section also oversees Texas Children's Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter Service Team. Advanced practitioners expertly perform line placements under ultrasound guidance. Attending physicians provide sedation and supervision. This mobile team can place PICCs in their dedicated procedure room, the ICU bedside, or the operative suite as needed. Serving both the inpatient and outpatient pediatric population, this busy team has placed more than 1,200 lines in their three years of operation.