Pediatric Intensive Care Unit
If your child is sick enough to need intensive care, your whole life becomes focused on their health and wellbeing. Here at Providence Alaska Children's Hospital’s Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), that’s our focus too. We provide the highest level of care, answering all of your questions and keeping you informed every step of the way. Above all, we never forget that each child is an individual with their own needs, interests and a family who loves them.
Our pediatric specialists use the latest medical technologies to treat critically ill or injured children up to age 18. We also treat older children who have special needs.
Our patients may arrive from the emergency department or directly from their pediatrician’s office. If a child who has a life-threatening condition is transferred to us from another hospital or clinic in Alaska, they come by a specialized mobile intensive care unit. The expert team in this unit uses life-support equipment to stabilize, treat and monitor the child throughout transport by ground, helicopter or airplane.
No matter how your child comes to us, they immediately become the center of our specialists’ team focus – 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Your child’s care will be managed by a pediatric intensivist. These specialists are highly trained in treating critically ill children. And all our patients benefit from our compassionate nurses, who receive ongoing training in caring for children with serious illnesses or injuries.
Your child’s care also may include:
- Treatments with pediatric physicians who specialize in areas such as the heart, lungs, kidneys, nervous system, digestive system or disorders of the blood in children
- Surgery with a pediatric surgeon or pediatric neurosurgeon
- Treatments with a pediatric respiratory therapist
We treat approximately 500 children each year in our nine-bed PICU, which is the only one of its kind in Alaska. We are a Level II Pediatric Trauma Center as well as a designated Children’s Oncology Group (COG). Our patients benefit from state-of-the-art medical technology and receive care from our highly trained team of physicians, nurses and respiratory therapists.
- Our policies are intended to protect our patients and make things go smoothly for parents and visitors. For example:
- We encourage parents to stay at the bedside and take part in their child’s care, 24 hours a day. There are twin-size daybeds in each room so parents can stay overnight.
- If you have a court-ordered custody agreement, please bring copies of these documents for the medical team.
- To contact a parent who is with their child in our PICU, you’ll need to know the name of the patient. Parents and family members are not listed in the hospital directory.
- We welcome visitors with the following policies:
- Visitors are limited to two at one time.
- Visiting hours are between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m.
- Parents must approve all visits with a minor child.
- Visitors must check-in at the welcome desk and complete a health screening questionnaire. People with contagious infections may not be allowed to visit.
The technology of today’s intensive care, such as EKG monitors, respirators and intravenous tubes, can be bewildering for children and their families. We help put your mind at ease with support such as:
- Case managers
- Chaplains
- Child life specialists
- Educators
- Interpreters for those who do not speak English as a primary language, or who use sign language.
- Pediatric social workers
- Trained pediatric ICU nurses