Quality and Outcomes Reports - Herma Heart Center
Average Length of Stay by Procedure
Why we measure it - We realize the importance of not having a child stay in the hospital any longer than necessary. The average time a child is in the hospital depends on many factors including how serious the illness or injury as well as what kind of medical therapies are needed.
What this means - Children's Hospital of Wisconsin is able to provide the highest quality of care while working to keep our average length of stay as low as possible. Our average length of stay for Fontan procedures is lower than our PHIS peers while our average length of stay for non-neonatal tetrology repairs and neonate transposition of the great arteries is higher than our PHIS peers.
About the data - This data reflects the average number of days a child stays at Children's Hospital before going home, by diagnosis, compared to Pediatric Hospital Information System peers. PHIS hospitals represent other leading free-standing pediatric hospitals.
Related dimensions of care:
What we're doing to provide the best care:
- We have pediatric cardiac-trained anesthesiologists and an excellent Pediatric Intensive Care Unit staffed by pediatric cardiac experts. This helps us achieve great outcomes.
- We offer a special long-term follow-up clinic for children with serious conditions to identify any problems as early as possible and provide support as necessary.
- We developed improved postoperative management techniques that allow patients to breathe on their own sooner after surgery. This also reduces length of stay and the risk of complications associated with mechanical ventilation.
- We continue to investigate and develop better perioperative techniques to improve safe recovery for children undergoing surgery for congenital heart disease, including drugs that minimize the effects of heart-lung bypass and novel noninvasive tools to measure how blood is flowing to the body as a gauge of heart recovery.
- We offer the Family Accommodations Program to help make travel arrangements and coordinate appointments for families traveling to our center from a long distance.
Patients and families:
- Be an advocate for your child. Participate in daily bedside clinical discussions, and provide any information about your child that may be helpful to staff.
- Follow medical instructions fully and carefully before and after surgery.
- Ask questions if you don't understand the plan of care or if you are not sure how to care for your child at home.
Referring physicians:
- Fill out and fax a referral form prior to sending the patient to Children's Hospital for outpatient ancillary services or a specialty clinic visit.
- Forward any pertinent patient documentation, including test results, to the specialty physician's office prior to the patient's visit.
- Referring physicians can access our specialists for consultation or transport 24 hours a day. Call our physician referral line at (800) 266-0366.
- Health care providers from outside of our southeastern Wisconsin service area are encouraged to use our web-based
e-Consult service. This service is available for non-urgent patient cases only and gives providers access to our specialists to review patient cases, obtain medical advice or second opinions, and receive care recommendations for rare symptoms and illnesses.
e-Consult is not to be used by the general public, parents/guardians or families. - Care guidelines for medical professionals
- Educational materials
- Pocket Directory
If you have questions about this information, email us or call (414) 266-6556.