When a life-threatening situation arises, CHOC Critical Care physicians are available 24-hours-a-day, seven days a week to provide comprehensive services for acutely ill or seriously injured children and adolescents. Around the clock, CHOC’s transport team is available to bring children in from other facilities to receive the pediatric expertise they can only get at CHOC.

Construction is now underway to develop CHOC’s sixth floor into a 30 bed Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) with 12 dedicated Cardiovascular Intensive Care (CVICU) beds. Every patient in the new unit will have a private room (increasing infection control) which includes its own patient restroom, chairs, a television and a sofa-bed so that parents, who typically desire to be near their child’s side around the clock, can “room-in.” An alcove with windows between each set of rooms allows doctors and nurses to observe patients and access medical charts at innovative computer workstations. The patient rooms are designed to be spacious enough to handle large equipment, while two of the CVICU rooms will serve as surgical suites for patients too fragile to be transported out of the PICU for surgery.

The new unit will also have its own satellite pharmacy, ultrasound and x-ray equipment, allowing for immediate results and eliminating the need for staff or patients to travel to other areas of the hospital to obtain these services.