Pediatric Critical Care Medicine Fellowship

The Spectrum Health/Michigan State University College of Human Medicine Pediatric Critical Care Medicine Fellowship is a comprehensive training program designed to develop leaders in the science and art of pediatric critical care medicine. Focal elements of training include the advancement of medical knowledge, professionalism, humanism, data-driven clinical decision making, procedural skills, and scholarly activity.

From the Program Director

Welcome to the pediatric critical care fellowship at Spectrum Health Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital. I hope you find the information on this website informative! I am truly excited about the growth of our program since its start in 2016 and I can’t wait for you to learn more about it.

Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital is the primary site for the fellowship. It is a 236-bed, free-standing, tertiary care center located in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan. Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital is the only licensed free-standing children’s hospital and level 1 pediatric trauma center in West Michigan, providing world class care in over 50 pediatric specialties. The hospital moved into a new, state-of-the-art facility in 2011 and cares for nearly 8,000 inpatients and 95,000 ambulatory visits annually. The pediatric emergency department cares for nearly 50,000 patients per year.

The pediatric critical care unit is a 24-bed medical ICU and 6 bed cardiac ICU with the ability to flex up to 36 beds during high volume periods. The unit cares for more than 1,600 children annually, including level 1 traumas, patients undergoing solid organ and stem cell transplant, cardiothoracic surgery, general pediatric surgery, neurosurgery, and a broad range of patients with organ dysfunction or failure.

The division of pediatric critical care also runs the pediatric sedation service, which is one of the largest pediatric sedation programs in the country serving nearly 6,000 children per year. This service provides sedation for a multitude of procedures including bone marrow biopsies, lumbar punctures, endoscopies, bronchoscopies, interventional radiology procedures and MRI. We also perform most of the vascular access services, including placement of PICC lines, central venous lines, broviac catheters and ports.

The cardiothoracic surgical service performs more than 300 surgeries per year and continues to increase in patient volume each year. Both pre- and post-operative multidisciplinary rounds are conducted in a collaborative manner led by the cardiothoracic surgeons, cardiologists, and intensivists.

Another unique aspect of the division is the pediatric blood management program, which is staffed by the faculty in the division of pediatric critical care. This service has been a leader in reducing and optimizing blood product utilization and is a national leader in research in the field.

All the modern technologies which are expected of a tertiary care institute are available in our PICU. The specialized supportive technology utilized in the PCCU include CRRT, hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis, HFOV, nitric oxide and plasmapheresis. Our ECMO program is very active with both cardiac and non-cardiac domains.

The pediatric intensive care physicians collaborate in medical direction for the ECMO service with the cardiothoracic or pediatric surgical teams. The fellows will have an opportunity to participate in all aspects of clinical care provided by the division.

Thank you for your interest in our program! Please do not hesitate to contact me with additional questions.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Prentice, DO

Program Director, Pediatric Critical Care Medicine