Cardiac Progressive Care Unit

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Norton Children’s Hospital offers a 12-bed cardiac progressive care unit for children recovering from heart conditions. This progressive care unit, sometimes called a step-down unit, is for children who have reached a milestone in their recovery and no longer require intensive care in the Jennifer Lawrence Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU).

Children in our progressive care unit are cared for by the board-certified, fellowship-trained pediatric cardiologists and nurse practitioners with Norton Children’s Heart Institute, affiliated with the UofL School of Medicine. Children are monitored closely with telemetry, a way to check vital signs remotely. Nurses in our progressive care unit also are specially trained to care for children with heart conditions.

What Is a Progressive Care Unit?

Children needing care in an intensive care unit, such as the CICU, are typically the sickest, needing extremely close monitoring and care. As a child’s condition stabilizes and improves, they can graduate, or step down, to a progressive care unit. That’s why these units often are called step-down units. These children still receive specialized care and close monitoring by our heart specialists, but they have improved enough that they can move out of the CICU on their way to recover at home.

Why Choose Norton Children’s Heart Institute

  • Norton Children’s Hospital has been a pioneer in pediatric cardiothoracic surgery, performing Kentucky’s first pediatric heart transplant in 1986 and becoming the second site in the United States to perform an infant heart transplant.
  • The American Board of Thoracic Surgery has certified our cardiothoracic surgeons in congenital heart surgery.
  • The Adult Congenital Heart Association has accredited Norton Children’s Heart Adult Congenital Heart Disease Program as the only comprehensive care center in Kentucky and Indiana treating adults born with a heart defect.
  • More than 17,000 children a year visit Norton Children’s Heart Institute for advanced heart care.
  • Norton Children’s Heart Institute has offices across Kentucky and Southern Indiana to bring quality pediatric heart care closer to home.
  • The Jennifer Lawrence Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU) at Norton Children’s Hospital is the largest dedicated CICU in Kentucky, equipped with 17 private rooms and the newest technology available for heart care.

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