Hospital opens pediatric unit

A new $5.4 million Pediatric Intensive Care Unit is opening its doors at UW Children’s Hospital.

More than four times larger in square footage than the existing PICU, the new unit is an eye-opening medical and architectural achievement.

“While this is a place no family ever wants to be by choice, parents will appreciate knowing that this incredible, family-focused facility is here if their child should ever need first-in-class critical care,” says Aaron Friedman, medical director of UW Children’s Hospital. “We view this new unit as a quantum leap forward in the care of critically ill and injured children from the region.”

Patients typically admitted to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit face acute life-threatening illness or have just returned from surgery. Constructed during the past 28 months, the new PICU provides a setting for state-of-the-art care.

It provides for more privacy than the old PICU and is designed with a “Through All Seasons” theme that incorporates raindrops (spring), the sun (summer), leaves (fall) and snowflakes (winter) throughout the floor, wall and woodwork, ceiling tiles and patient rooms.