The Best Care for the Most Serious Heart Conditions
The Heart Institute is the home of the Midwest’s first comprehensive Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU). We provide state-of-the-art care for complex medical and surgical patients, from newborns to adolescents. Our CICU has five board-certified physicians in pediatric cardiology and pediatric critical care medicine to ensure the best possible outcome for your child.
Care Services
The CICU team offers a wide range of expert care:
- Neonatal diagnosis and stabilization
- Postoperative surgical care
- Care following complex catheter interventions and hybrid procedures
- Management of complex arrhythmias
- Care of pre- and post-operative cardiac transplant patients
- Management of pulmonary hypertension, heart failure and cardiomyopathy
- Care of patients with heart disease who require intensive care for non-cardiac diseases or surgeries
- Care of patients requiring mechanical heart assist, such as extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) or ventricular assist devices (Berlin Heart or others)
Our 19-bed CICU is a national leader in safety and improvement initiatives. We have one of the lowest rates of catheter-associated bloodstream infections in the nation, and the mortality rate in our CICU stands at 1.5 percent.
Admission and Referrals
The majority of our patients are admitted through transfer, either from referring hospitals and physicians or following cardiac surgery. We occasionally receive patients directly from a home setting after a physician’s referral.
Physicians interested in making a referral to the CICU should contact an attending physician through our referral page, or by calling Physician Priority Link at 513-636-4010 or the CICU at 513-636-4007.
Cardiac Intensive Care Specialists
- David Nelson, MD, PhD, Director
- Ranjit Chima, MD
- Catherine Krawczeski, MD
- Angela Lorts, MD
- Bradley Marino, MD
- Hector Wong, MD
- Derek Wheeler, MD
- Beth Ann Johnson, MD
