UPMC Children’s Earns ELSO Award for Excellence in Life Support
August 23, 2022
UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh has been awarded the ELSO Award for Excellence in Life Support – Platinum level.
The Award for Excellence in Life Support from the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (ELSO) recognizes hospitals and medical centers around the world that demonstrate exceptional commitment to evidence-based processes and quality measures, staff training and continuing education, patient satisfaction and ongoing clinical care in the use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO).
Leading the ECMO program and team at UPMC Children’s are Heart Institute surgeon, Melita Viegas, MD, Assistant Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery; Marit Aspenleiter, BS, CCP, ECMO Coordinator at UPMC Children’s; and David Palmer, EdD, CCP, LP, Director of Perfusion and ECMO Services at UPMC Children’s.
“This is truly a remarkable achievement, not only for Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and our ECMO Team, but for our patients, patient families and for the Pittsburgh community. Achievement of this designation signifies that we are devoted to providing exceptional patient care.”
UPMC Children’s ECMO program in the Heart Institute first began in 1979 and has provided some of the most advanced life support for critically ill children with complex heart and lung conditions for more than four decades.
In 2008, the program became one of a handful of programs in the United States to provide ECMO transport for children with advanced heart failure who are in need of transplantation or long-term mechanical circulatory support.
The award will be presented at the 33rd Annual ELSO Conference in Boston in September 2022.
