Cardiac Center

The Nemours Cardiac Center, located in the world-renowned Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children (AIDHC), is dedicated and specially designed to deliver the best possible care to infants and children with heart disease. We’re convinced that virtually all forms of childhood heart disease, even the most unusual and complicated, can be treated. And we know that early diagnosis and treatment give your child the very best chance of leading a happy, active, and long life.

We believe that people do best what they do everyday. At the Nemours Cardiac Center, an entire team of medical experts (in pediatric cardiac surgery, cardiology, anesthesiology, and critical care) is dedicated solely to the special challenges of childhood heart abnormalities. Having made the care of children with heart disease their life’s work, our team members come from other excellent institutions to the Nemours Cardiac Center to provide the best care possible for any child with heart problems, from mild to complex.

Families from all over the region, the country, and the world put their children’s hearts in our hands. We treat young patients from not only Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, but from throughout the United States – and the globe. Here are some of the many reasons why you can feel confident in putting your child’s heart in our hands:

Top-of-the-line treatment

Every square inch of our Center is used only for the care of infants and children with heart disease. Our Cardiac Center features a 10-bed cardiac intensive care unit; a 16-bed “step-down unit” (used for children who require less observation); an operating room; and a new, digital, state-of-the-art cardiac catheterization and electrophysiology suite (where kids can be diagnosed and treated for many common heart conditions).

We offer first-class heart surgery as well as modern, non-surgical approaches to treating many children’s heart conditions. We’ve also become a leader in minimizing the number of operations our young patients need. The techniques and advances we use can help babies and children avoid the trauma and recovery time of open-heart surgery. Our treatment options improve the outlook for scores of children – with less discomfort and shorter hospital stays. And we’re one of only a mere handful of centers in the United States where certain treatment capabilities are available.

Advanced care from our comprehensive team

The Cardiac Center is about far more than our impressive facility and high-tech equipment. Our highly specialized, caring staff includes professionals trained in – and dedicated completely to – cardiac care for children, including:

• pediatric cardiologists (kids’ heart doctors) – including interventional cardiologists (doctors who repair heart problems without surgery) and electrophysiology cardiologists (doctors who evaluate and treat abnormal heart rhythms)
• pediatric cardiac surgeons
• pediatric cardiac anesthesiologists
• a team of nurses, technicians, and social workers

We make it easier for you to see everyone on your child’s care team at the same time, rather than sending you from place to place. Families can usually see cardiologists and other specialists on a single day, all at one location. And we all work together every day to provide the most up-to-date care available to children with cardiac problems.

Our cardiac teams also use something called “telemedicine” to immediately view charts, X-rays, scans, and other patient information via two-way video equipment using fiber-optic telephone lines. So our young patients benefit from the knowledge of experts across the country who analyze visual data and do consultations, in real time. And that means it takes less time to make important diagnostic and surgical decisions. Telemedicine allows us to consult with some of the best minds in the world in cardiac care for our patients, taking the “second opinion” to a whole new level.

Big help for the littlest hearts

Since about two-thirds of patients with critical heart disease present as babies, we know that it’s often the tiniest hearts that need the most help – and as soon as possible. But thanks to advanced technology and our expert team of specialists, most children born with a heart defect or condition – even newborns only hours old – can be quickly diagnosed and treated right when it matters the­ most.

If your unborn baby has a heart defect, close coordination among specialists is critically important. The Nemours Cardiac Center’s fetal cardiology team works with your obstetrician and/or perinatologist (a doctor who specializes in high-risk pregnancies) to help plan for the evaluation and treatment of your baby’s heart condition before and after birth. Early in-utero diagnosis (when your baby is still in the womb) offers you invaluable time to prepare emotionally and to make sound medical and financial arrangements for your child’s care. The Cardiac Center staff is here to help educate and guide you through the process of understanding the defect, what will happen after delivery, and what surgical or non-surgical procedure will be required to remedy the problem.

Specializing in early diagnosis and repair

Whatever kind of heart problem your child has, we specialize in early detection and repair, so that your child will have the very best possible chance for a healthy future. Early detection and treatment of a child's heart defect can often prevent damage and allow the heart to begin to function normally as quickly as possible.

We use a wide range of advanced diagnostic tests to get to the bottom of kids’ heart problems. Depending on your child’s age and condition, tests may include:

• electrocardiograms (or EKGs)
• imaging tests (such as echocardiograms, MRIs, and CT scans)
• exercise tests (to assess how your child’s lungs and heart hold up during physical activity)
  

National accreditation for our Echocardiography Department

Echocardiography (or “echo,” for short) is a specialized form of ultrasound that builds a picture of the heart using sound waves. The Echocardiography Department within the Nemours Cardiac Center received a three-year accreditation for pediatric transthoracic echocardiography by the Intersocietal Commission for the Accreditation of Echocardiography Laboratories (ICAEL). Accreditation by ICAEL signifies the country’s highest level of achievement in the specialty.

Support for you – the parent – from the get-go

We don’t just care for your child at the Nemours Cardiac Center, we make sure that you are also able to deal with the many new issues and sometimes seemingly overwhelming emotions and responsibilities parents of children with heart disease often face. We’re dedicated to providing you with one-on-one emotional support and access to programs and support groups to help you cope.

We take care of the little details, too, to ease your stress as much as possible. If you need a medically assisted transport, our staff will arrange for air or ground ambulance service – allowing you to concentrate on your child, not on how you’re going to get here. Our staff will also work with your health plan to make sure that an agreement can be made about payment. We accept most major health plans as well as Delaware and out-of-state Medicaid. And qualifying patients can apply for financial support through the Nemours Foundation.

Our colorful, family-oriented environment

Every phase of treatment and hospitalization is intended to keep you with your child – and to take some of the anxiety and fear out of evaluation, treatment, and rehabilitation. Our vibrant, kid-friendly rooms are designed to feel like your home-away-from-home with a private bathroom, bulletin board to display cards or artwork, telephone, color TV, and DVD. At least one parent is usually welcome to stay with their child overnight in a provided cot. If your child requires more critical care, our Cardiac Intensive Care Unit rooms have full beds so you can be available, day and night, when your child needs you the most.

More information on inpatient stays is available in our Patient and Family section.