Children’s Hospital of San Diego (CHSD) is a 215-bed hospital that first opened in 1954, and now includes a 30-bed Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), a 30-bed intermediate ICU, and an Emergency Department. The amalgamation with the University of California, San Diego in 2001 has led to the relocation of all inpatient pediatric services to CHSD, including intensive care. CHSD serves as the only major pediatric regional referral center in a two county area admitting approximately 10,000 patients per year and administering approximately 18,000 anesthetics per year.  The Pediatric Intensive Care Unit admits approximately 1200 patients per year and the Intermediate ICU approximately 2000 patients per year.  CHSD is the only designated regional Pediatric Trauma Center in the county and admits approximately 1200 trauma patients per year.  CHSD performs 500 cardiovascular surgeries per year, and has an active ECMO program.  CHSD also runs a pediatric transport service which admits 1200 patients per year. The PICU is staffed by six attending intensivists and six to eight fellows. Dr. Brad Peterson is the director of the unit.

The CHSD PICU is affiliated with several institutions: