Duke Children’s Hospital, known as Duke Children’s, and the Pediatric Anesthesiology Division are the premiere children’s hospital and pediatric anesthesiology division in the state. The 13 pediatric anesthesiology faculty and two fellows provide care to approximately 8,000 patients each year throughout the Duke University Health System and support Duke Children’s and Duke’s Department of Pediatrics for their sedation and airway needs in many different locations, including the intensive care units, Duke Radiology, Duke Ambulatory Surgery Center, and Duke Eye Center.
Duke Children’s is a Level-one trauma center with 8.6 dedicated pediatric operating rooms, 1.25 pediatric cardiac operating rooms, two cardiac catheterization labs, and two procedure rooms. The dedicated pediatric hospital entrance, preoperative, PACU areas, and operating rooms are both pediatric patient and family focused. Duke was one of the first pediatric centers verified by the American College of Surgeons as a Level 1 center for optimization of care for children and was recently re-verified in 2019. Additionally, it is a hemostasis and transfusion center of excellence.
The Pediatric Anesthesiology Division at Duke is a model for children’s care, and education and research excellence in a children’s hospital within a hospital. Unlike freestanding children’s hospitals, Duke Children’s has the ability to use the wealth of knowledge from adult colleagues to provide advanced care for pediatric patients. The access to medications and technology, not traditionally seen in children’s hospitals, shapes both clinical experience and research endeavors of the pediatric anesthesiology faculty.
In addition to exemplary clinical care and nationally-recognized training programs, the division promotes the development of faculty educators and innovative research to improve outcomes by enhancing quality and safety. Specifically, the division’s areas of research interests include pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics of anesthetic and pain agents in children, hemostasis strategies in pediatric cardiac patients, large database studies, and participation in many multicenter studies.