Original ArticlesGrowth of pediatric intensive care units in the United States from 1995 to 2001☆
Section snippets
Definitions
A PICU is a separate physical facility or unit specifically designated for the treatment of pediatric patients who, because of shock, trauma, or other life-threatening conditions, require intensified, comprehensive observation and care.5 For the purposes of this study, we defined a pediatric intensivist as any one of the following: (a) a pediatrician with subspecialty training in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine and subspecialty certification from the American Board of Pediatrics, (b) a
Number of PICUs and PICU beds in the United States and Puerto Rico
We were able to contact administrators in all hospitals that were designated as potentially having PICUs (391 hospitals in 1995 to 1996 and 518 hospitals in 2001 to 2002). We confirmed the existence of 306 US and 3 Puerto Rican general PICUs in 1995 and 349 US and 5 Puerto Rican general PICUs in 2001. These numbers are lower than the 330 and 463 PICUs reported for the same periods in the AHA survey in part because the definition of PICU used by the AHA included pediatric intensive care services
Discussion
Between 1995 and 2001, we identified a 14% growth in the number of PICUs and a 24% growth in the number of general PICU beds in the United States. Although the number of PICUs and PICU beds varies across the United States, the number of PICU beds in each US census region for the pediatric population served is quite similar. In both 1995 and 2001, almost half of the PICUs had 8 beds or less. The number of PICUs staffed by a pediatric intensive care specialist has risen more than 20%, from 73.2%
References (14)
Regionalization of pediatric critical care
Crit Care Clin
(1992)- et al.
Should paediatric intensive care be centralised? Trent versus Victoria
Lancet
(1997) - American Hospital Association. AHA Annual Survey Database FY95. Health Forum LLC, editor. [FY95]. 1996....
- American Hospital Association. AHA Annual Survey Database FY00. Health Forum LLC, editor. [FY00]. 2001....
Guidelines and levels of care for pediatric intensive care units
Pediatrics
(1993)- et al.
Pediatric intensive care units: results of a national survey
Crit Care Med
(1993) Guidelines for pediatric intensive care units
Crit Care Med
(1983)
Cited by (134)
Study protocol for a two-center test of a nurse-implemented chronotherapeutic restoring bundle in critically ill children: RESTORE Resilience (R<sup>2</sup>)
2021, Contemporary Clinical Trials CommunicationsEducation and advocacy in acute kidney injury in children: a call for action
2024, Brazilian Journal of NephrologyEvaluation of Patients Followed in he Third Level Pediatric Intensive Care Unit: Single Center Experience
2023, Eastern Journal of Medicine
- ☆
Dr Randolph is funded by NIH NHLBI K23 Award HL04278.