Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC Named Accredited Center of Care by Children’s Cardiomyopathy Foundation

The Heart Institute at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC has been named an accredited center of care by the Children’s Cardiomyopathy Foundation (CCF), a national nonprofit organization committed to improving the health outcomes and quality of life for children with cardiomyopathy, a chronic heart disease that affects how the heart pumps blood through the body.

Children’s Hospital received this recognition for consistently providing high-quality cardiac care and specialized disease management to children with the disease.

“Cardiomyopathies are a variety of serious conditions that can lead to heart failure and death,” said Brian Feingold, M.D., M.S., medical director, Heart Failure and Transplantation Programs, Children’s Hospital. “At Children’s, we have a strong tradition of excellence in care for all forms of this complex disease. Accreditation by the CCF is welcome recognition of our world-class pediatric cardiomyopathy program, including our success in caring for infants, children and adolescents across the entire spectrum of cardiomyopathies.”

As a leader in treating children with heart failure, the Heart Institute’s heart failure and recovery program and its dedicated cardiomyopathy clinic helps pediatric patients and their families on both an inpatient and outpatient basis.

“Our accreditation program aims to identify centers with expertise in pediatric cardiomyopathy and provides families with standardized information to help them locate the top treatment centers,” said Lisa Yue, CCF’s founding executive director. “We are happy to include Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC among the list of highly skilled and experienced hospitals that specialize in treating all forms of cardiomyopathy in children.”

Center accreditation is based on data reported by hospitals and cross referenced against CCF’s requirements. Centers meeting specific criteria are designated as a CCF-accredited center of care for a two-year period. In general, accredited centers manage a high volume of pediatric cardiomyopathy patients, offer a variety of pediatric patient services, specialize in the treatment and management of cardiomyopathy in children, and are affiliated with an academic research institution.