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Business journal names PACE winners by Heather Woolwine Public Relations With construction completed only a couple of months ago, the new PCICU barely had time to move in equipment and let the paint dry before winning an award for its new digs.   MUSC Children’s Hospital Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (PCICU) won the PACE award from the Charleston Regional Business Journal this November.   “I’d never done a project like this before, and I’m especially proud that we worked as a team to make it happen. We’ve had a lot of support throughout the design and construction phases,” said Kimberly Montgomery, R.N., PCICU nurse manager.   The Palmetto Architecture Construction and Engineering Award (PACE) is presented annually in recognition of project teams who collaborate to design, engineer and build distinguished projects in the Lowcountry. Stubbs Muldrow Herin Architects were commended for their contributions along with the PCICU staff.   Judged by an independent group of architects and engineers who examine each project nominated, those who receive a PACE award may receive it for one of two categories. PCICU, along with the MUSC fifth floor Level II Nursery and the Darby Children's Research Institute, received the highest distinction with the Honor award.   “We are very proud of the achieve-ment,” Montgomery said.   The PCICU is now one of the largest in the country, rivaled only by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Johns Hopkins University. “Our returning patients and families love it and are really looking forward to the opening of the family room in early January next year,” Montgomery said.   The new unit consists of 12 beds, four of which are private rooms. The bays themselves are huge, with enough room for family, clinicians, and equipment to easily maneuver around patients.   The new unit also boasts real-time ECHO capabilities and can view cases in the operating room prior to the patients’ arrival in the PCICU.   “I’ve been extremely proud of our nurses, they’ve really taken the unit and made it their own and they too are so proud of it,” Montgomery said. “They’ve had to deal with a lot of adjustments and staff shortages, as it’s difficult to find new graduates who want to work in such a highly specialized unit.”   Because of the rarity of PCICUs, most pediatric cardiac patients around the country are admitted to a general pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) in other hospitals, often causing confusion between the PCICU and the PICU.   “Although we’re in the adult hospital, we are very much a pediatric-focused cardiac intensive care unit dedicated to improving the lives of South Carolina’s smallest heart patients,” Montgomery said. Friday, Dec. 16, 2005 Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to petersnd@musc.edu or catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Community Press at 849-1778.