Faculty Group Practice Newsletter

A 2025 Vizient recognition shines the spotlight on the impressive work to care for pediatric patients at UTMB campuses – a round-the-clock operation that requires expertise, commitment to quality, and tireless dedication from Pediatrics faculty.

Vizient’s Bernard A. Birnbaum Quality and Accountability Award for Pediatric Hospital Services, presented for the first time this year, honors the top-performing academic medical centers in this realm nationwide. UTMB ranked seventh out of 98 institutions.

“The patient obviously comes first. Everything that we do is for the patient,” says Leticia Castillo, MD, Director of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at UTMB Health.

“Thanks to the Vizient data that we receive every month, we can become more aware of areas where we can perform better. We are doing very well, but even those at the very top can find opportunities to improve.”

For pediatric hospital services, the Vizient study focused on four domains: mortality, patient safety, efficiency (length of stay), and effectiveness (readmissions).

The rating reflects on the efforts of many teams providing pediatric hospital services. Dr. Castillo’s team in critical care is one key component, taking care of patients at the PICU in Galveston, as well as the Intermediate Care Units in Galveston and Clear Lake.

Critical care services in Galveston have recently expanded, with more beds in the PICU and in the Intermediate Care Unit, offering flexibility to take care of more critically ill patients when the need arises.

“Patients don’t only get sick during the daytime, and not only for a few hours,” Dr. Castillo says. “Critically ill patients might need care for a week or even a month – and they need care 24/7.”

The Pediatric Critical Care team includes four intensivists, but Dr. Castillo points out that interdisciplinary collaboration is essential in critical care medicine – a true “team sport,” as she describes it.

She highlights the contributions of nurses, respiratory therapists, pharmacists, rehabilitation specialists, and physician colleagues in Cardiology, Infectious Diseases, Gastroenterology, Pediatric Surgery, Neurosurgery, Orthopedics, ENT, and more.

“It is really a collaboration of multiple specialties, and we all work together to improve the patient’s condition and make their stay in the hospital better,” Dr. Castillo says. “Having all the laboratories that we need, having the ability to order an emergency study or emergency test – everyone is very busy, yet they always make time for us. The ICU really reflects on the efforts of the larger team within the hospital.”

The division’s success opens the door for its providers to have an even bigger impact.

Among its future plans, Dr. Castillo is looking forward to bringing a PICU to the Clear Lake Campus, an important service that would further solidify UTMB’s growing presence on the mainland.

“A pediatric critical care unit in Clear Lake would be a move that will serve the community and allow us to take care of these children near their homes, which is important for the families,” she says.

The PICU in Galveston will also begin to incorporate renal services in the near future, like Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy, a form of dialysis for critically ill patients.

Further out on the horizon, Dr. Castillo also hopes to establish a Pediatric Critical Care fellowship, applying UTMB’s faculty expertise and resources to train the future workforce in this vital specialty.

This year’s Vizient ranking is a strong motivator for the team to continue its commitment to quality while expanding its impact. Dr. Castillo shares that the recognition has been reaffirming for her and her colleagues, but it is only one of the rewards of this high-pressure specialty.

“It's so satisfying to get a text from a mother with a picture of her child – a patient we took care of, who was critically ill,” Dr. Castillo says. “Now seeing them active in sports, back to a normal life – that's the best reward for doing intensive care. That's what makes it worth it.”