Why Choose Us

Outcomes That Are Among the Best in the Nation

• For more than a decade, U.S. News & World Report has consistently ranked our Heart Center among the top pediatric cardiology and heart surgery programs in the country, which means your child will be cared for by the very best.
• Whether your child needs a simple heart repair, a complex procedure or a transplant, our surgical outcomes are among the best in the nation year after year.
• We have one of the highest 3-year heart transplant survival rates in the country —and one of the busiest pediatric heart transplant centers.  Optum’s Clinical Sciences Institute has named our program a Center of Excellence.
• Seattle Children’s has an international reputation for developing tools and programs to improve the quality of care your child receives. We use these to measure and learn from our results and always build on our success.
• See more of our outstanding statistics and outcomes.

Experts Working Together, Ready to Partner with You

• The care team at Seattle Children’s Heart Center has more advanced training and experience caring for children with heart problems than caregivers at any other children’s hospital in the Pacific Northwest.
• Our pediatric cardiac surgeons perform more than 500 procedures yearly. Each has deep experience operating on babies, children and teens with a wide range of heart conditions.
• Our more than 40 pediatric cardiologists have experience diagnosing and treating every kind of heart problem. Whether your child’s heart condition is mild or critical, we offer any needed cardiac care in a child-focused, healing environment.
• We will discuss your child’s condition and treatment options in ways you understand. Working closely with you and your child’s referring physician, we will create a treatment plan to meet your child’s unique needs.
• We will coordinate your child’s care with any other pediatric specialists they need at Seattle Children’s. We often coordinate with experts in neurodevelopment, nutrition, feeding therapy and other clinics and programs.
• Everyone on the Heart Center team — doctors, surgeons, nurse practitioners, cardiopulmonary perfusionists and many others — pair their high skill level with a strong commitment to helping your child live a full and active life.
• Meet your care team.

Complete, Lifelong Cardiac Care

• Dealing with heart disease can be scary and stressful. Seattle Children’s Heart Center offers many resources to make your journey as smooth as possible so you can stay focused on your child. Resources include interpreter services, social services, nurses with specialized training who can help you navigate your child’s treatment plan and other support for your family. We often help families with logistics like finding a place to stay if they are coming from outside the Seattle area.
• If you are pregnant, learning more about your baby’s heart problems gives you more time to make decisions and plan care. The cardiologists in our Fetal Care and Treatment Center can make fast, accurate diagnoses of congenital heart defects as early as 14 weeks’ gestation.
• If you have a prenatal diagnosis, we bring together a team of specialists to meet your needs through pregnancy, safe delivery and for your newborn’s care.
• Our Arrhythmia Program provides comprehensive treatment and evaluation to children and teens with heart rhythm problems from the simple to the complex.
• We work with the University of Washington to provide an Adult Congenital Heart Disease program to protect your child’s long-term health as they grow and transition to adulthood.

Advanced Treatments, Compassionate Care

• If your child is born with a heart defect, Seattle Children’s Heart Center provides personalized repair plans using the most advanced imaging techniques offered by any children’s hospital in the Pacific Northwest. Your plan is informed by imaging techniques like 3-D imaging, cardiac MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), CT (computed tomography) and echocardiography.
• We provide comprehensive care for pediatric heart failure — including medicines, pacemakers, mechanical pumps (ventricular assist devices) and surgery — that can help delay or avoid a heart transplant.
• In our pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit, we offer the most specialized care and advanced technology available, along with comfort and privacy for you and your child.
• If a child’s heart or lungs fail, their best chance at survival may be a heart-lung machine called extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). Our ECMO team has some of the nation’s best outcomes. We are studying ways to reduce the inflammatory impact of being on ECMO and improve outcomes over the long term. With 1 of the only mobile ECMO programs in the country, we can bring critically ill patients to Seattle Children’s across great distances.

Innovations That Improve Children’s Lives

• Seattle Children’s was the first hospital in the Northwest to establish a team dedicated to pediatric interventional catheterization and electrophysiology procedures, many of which were developed here. Our cardiac catheter experts are developing more ways to replace or augment heart surgery. Their less-invasive techniques reduce complications and help children recover faster.
• Heart doctors at Seattle Children’s are leaders in using new techniques, such as hybrid procedures, for children with complex heart problems. This approach combines surgery and cardiac catheterization. Hybrid procedures can be life saving for babies who are too sick to go through open-heart surgery.
• We have one of the most comprehensive ventricular assist device (VAD) programs in the nation. Seattle Children's is 1 of only 2 sites on the West Coast selected for the Pumps for Kids, Infants and Neonates (PumpKIN) trial. It tests a new mechanical heart-assist device for very young children and newborns. Offering a wide variety of VADs means we can choose the device that best meets your child’s needs.
• Seattle Children's Heart Transplant program was the first and remains the only program in our region to offer innovative treatments that include ABO blood group–mismatched transplants so babies do not have to wait as long for a transplant, and tissue typing, blood banking and immune-system treatments, so children who otherwise would not qualify for a heart transplant can be successfully transplanted.
• Learn more about our research and clinical studies.

We’re Here for You When You Need Us

• We offer same- or next-day appointments for urgent cases. For most other needs, we offer appointments within 7 days.
• For your convenience, our heart doctors see patients in many locations. Our outreach program stretches from our hospital campus in Seattle to the Arctic Circle. We offer prenatal diagnosis and management at sites in Washington, Alaska and Montana.
• Telemedicine lets us connect with you at home. We continue to expand use of telemedicine to reach more families across the vast region we serve — nearly 1 million square miles in Washington, Alaska, Montana and Idaho. We can also provide expert, compassionate telehealth second opinions to any family in the United States.
• Many children and families travel to Seattle Children’s for heart surgery. We help you coordinate travel and housing so you can stay focused on your child. We have lots of experience helping families make the transition back home safely.    
• Make an appointment

Contact Us

Contact the Heart Center at 206-987-2515 for an appointment, second opinion or more information.

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