The Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU) at Boston Children’s Hospital is a 22-bed facility dedicated to the care of children with a wide range of critical illness diagnoses including respiratory failure (severe breathing problems), sepsis (serious infection), nutritional failure, poisoning, congenital anomalies, and life-threatening complications of metabolic diseases and endocrine disorders.
In the MICU, our clinicians have developed specific expertise in caring for children with both acute and chronic respiratory diseases, including those who receive chronic ventilation using non-invasive technologies or who receive mechanical ventilation by means of a tracheostomy (a surgically implanted tube in a child’s neck that helps air get into the lungs). All nurses in the MICU have received special training in pediatric critical care and are trained in Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS), ensuring that we provide the highest level of emergency preparedness for our patients.
Our state-of-the-art facility at Boston Children's has the newest and most technologically advanced structural layout and equipment available. Unique features include a specially designed sleep study room fully equipped as both an ICU bay and infrared-lit sleep facility. The MICU staffs a specially-trained biocontainment team, a volunteer group of physicians and nurses who have received advanced training in the safest possible care of patients with high-risk communicable diseases.
The MICU care team includes physician specialists and subspecialists, specially trained nurses, respiratory therapists, child life specialists, social workers, chaplains, and therapists who are highly trained and skilled in the care of very sick infants and children. In the MICU, we use cutting-edge techniques combined with the latest research to provide critically ill children with the best possible care in a patient-centered environment.
