Improving outcomes & quality through collaboration

The Pediatric Cardiac Critical Care Consortium (PC⁴) aims to improve the quality of care to patients with critical pediatric and congenital cardiovascular disease.

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The Pediatric Cardiac Critical Care Consortium (PC⁴) aims to improve the quality of care to patients with critical pediatric and congenital cardiovascular disease in North America and abroad. Formed in 2009 with National Institutes of Health funding, PC⁴ is a unique collaborative of leaders in pediatric cardiac critical care, cardiac surgery, and cardiology representing a diverse group of over 60 children’s hospitals across the globe caring for these vulnerable patients. The core pillars of collaborative quality improvement serve as the foundation for PC⁴. Using these pillars, we have been able to improve a variety of outcomes in these children, including the prevention of complications, such as cardiac arrest, and saving hundreds of children’s lives in our member centers.

News & Science

The latest clinical research published in the field pediatric cardiac critical care or referencing PC⁴ registry data

Racial and Ethnic Variation in ECMO Utilization and Outcomes in Pediatric Cardiac ICU Patients
Brunetti MA, Griffis HM, O'Byrne ML, Glatz AC, Huang J, Schumacher KR, Bailly DK, Domnina Y, Lasa JJ, Moga MA, Zaccagni H, Simsic JM and Gaynor JW
Previous studies have reported racial disparities in extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) utilization in pediatric cardiac patients.
Pediatric Cardiac Critical Care Consortium, Junctional Ectopic Tachycardia, and the Future of Flight
Overman DM and Gram KL
Clinical Outcomes After Tracheostomy in Children With Single Ventricle Physiology: Collaborative Research From the Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Society Multicenter Cohort, 2010-2021
Mastropietro CW, Sassalos P, Riley CM, Piggott K, Allen KY, Prentice E, Safa R, Buckley JR, Werho DK, Wakeham M, Smerling A, Yates AR, Iliopoulos I, Sandhu H, Chiwane S, Beshish A, Kwiatkowski DM, Flores S, Narashimhulu SS, Loomba R, Capone CA, Pike F, Costello JM and
Multicenter studies reporting outcomes following tracheostomy in children with congenital heart disease are limited, particularly in patients with single ventricle physiology. We aimed to describe clinical characteristics and outcomes in a multicenter cohort of patients with single ventricle physiology who underwent tracheostomy before Fontan operation.
Sustained Performance of Cardiac Arrest Prevention in Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Units
Mueller D, Bailly DK, Banerjee M, Bertrandt RA, Borasino S, Briceno-Medina M, Chan T, Diddle JW, Domnina Y, Clarke-Myers K, Connelly C, Florez A, Gaies M, Garza J, Ghassemzadeh R, Lane J, McCammond AN, Olive MK, Ortmann L, Prodhan P, Raymond TT, Sasaki J, Scahill C, Schroeder LW, Schumacher KR, Werho DK, Zhang W, Alten J and
The Pediatric Cardiac Critical Care Consortium (PC4) cardiac arrest prevention (CAP) quality improvement (QI) project facilitated a decreased in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA) incidence rate across multiple hospitals. The sustainability of this outcome has not been determined.
Critical care therapies pre- and post-heart transplant and their impact: Analysis from the Pediatric Cardiac Critical Care Consortium
Deshpande SR, Gajarski R, Das B, Zhang W, Peng D, Cabrera A and Schumacher K
Few studies highlighting the critical care management of patients after heart HTx (HTx) have been published to date. This analysis provides a contemporary representation of pre- and post-HTx critical care in various patient cohorts and outlines the impact of intensive care unit (ICU) therapies on outcomes.

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