Our 21-bed PICU includes state-of-the-art equipment and large private rooms for the families providing intensive care to critically ill patients. Children’s Hospital of Richmond’s PICU is the only Level 1 PICU in Central Virginia.
The PICU provides care for children with conditions such as acute respiratory failure, status asthmaticus, circulatory shock, major trauma, head injury, intracranial hypertension, status epilepticus, diabetic ketoacidosis, renal failure, and chemical intoxication.
The PICU also provides postoperative care for a broad range of surgical subspecialties such as neurosurgery, cardiac surgery, general surgery, transplant surgery, orthopedics, plastics, and ear-nose-and-throat surgery. The PICU not only receives admissions from the emergency room, pediatric floors, and operating rooms, but is a referral site for hospitals in the Richmond area and regions beyond.
The three or four senior residents and nurse practitioners who staff the PICU are the primary caregivers to all patients admitted. Supervision is by a PICU attending and often a fellow as well. PGY-3s cover the PICU night shift for a two-week block. Residents have direct hands-on experience with issues such as ventilator management, sepsis, respiratory failure, trauma and multisystem dysfunction. Interdisciplinary rounds include nurses, dieticians, social workers, child-life specialists and pharmacists.