Pediatric Intensive Care (PICU)

If your child or teen lives with or experiences a serious health condition that may require a surgical procedure and/or a hospital stay, you want the specialized follow-up care and services of a pediatric intensive care unit – found only at major hospitals, children’s hospitals or university (academic) medical centers such as OU Health – to support optimal recovery and positive long-term outcomes.

Pediatric Intensive Care for All Oklahomans

When you choose OU Health to provide surgery services for children, or if your critically ill child or teen transfers to Oklahoma Children’s Hospital in Oklahoma City from your local or community hospital, you gain access to the latest child-focused technology and the highly skilled children’s health specialists in our Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU).

Through the resources of OU Health’s academic medical center and Oklahoma’s only nationally designated Level 1 trauma center close to home, you and your child benefit from PICU facilities and services designed especially for children. Everything at Oklahoma Children’s Hospital ensures your child receives the type and quality of developmentally appropriate care to help achieve the best possible results for their particular situation.

PICU Support for Services Unique to Our Region

As a special section of the hospital set aside to provide the highest level of care for children and teens, the PICU offers your child in-depth nursing care and continuous monitoring of vital signs like heart rate, blood pressure and breathing. More intensive services, typically given only under close medical supervision within a PICU, may include ventilators or certain powerful medicines.

With support from the PICU at Oklahoma Children’s Hospital in Oklahoma City, you and your child may take advantage of a wide range of services available in our region only at OU Health, including:

• Pediatric cardiac care for complex heart conditions
• Pediatric extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) to support breathing and heart function for complex conditions and extended treatment situations
• Pediatric dialysis for kidney support
• Otorhinolaryngology (ORL) services for ear, nose and throat conditions
• Craniofacial surgeries, such as congenital cleft or serious injury
• Kidney transplantation
• Complex thoracic (chest) surgeries
• Pediatric trauma surgeries

Child- and Family-Centered Care

When your child stays in the PICU, which remains open at all times, you and your family become part of the team that helps determine and deliver the best care for the situation. As a parent or caregiver, you can stay at your child’s bedside without restriction. Limits affect only the number and ages of visitors.

In addition, you and your family can participate in OU Health’s Child Life programs for your hospitalized child. Specialists trained in child development, education, psychology and counseling help kids just be kids by providing play opportunities – medical play, therapeutic play or play for normalcy – as well as emotional support, relaxation, distraction, coping skills related to hospitalization and family support for challenging situations.

Your PICU Care Team

In addition to you and your family, your child’s PICU care team may include one or more of OU Health’s eight pediatric intensive care doctors, as well as additional board-certified physicians, surgeons, physician assistants and specially trained nurses and pediatric respiratory therapists, all certified in pediatric advanced life support.

You can rely on your team of pediatric healthcare professionals to perform child-focused general surgeries, as well as complex procedures for children’s heart, orthopedic, craniofacial, neurologic and many others or to support services related to children’s endocrinology, nephrology and hematology/oncology conditions.