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

This is the third consecutive year UPMC Children’s has been named an accredited center of care and is the only hospital in the region to receive this designation. 

“Cardiomyopathy is a complex disease and requires a team approach to comprehensive care. We have the best group of doctors, nurses and staff providing unwavering care and expertise for children with cardiomyopathy and heart failure,” said Brian Feingold, M.D., M.S., medical director, Heart Failure and Transplantation Programs, UPMC Children’s. “The CCF accreditation shows that if your child is one of 100,000 who receives a cardiomyopathy diagnosis, UPMC Children’s is here to help.”

As a leader in treating children with heart failure, UPMC Children’s Heart Failure and Recovery program helps pediatric patients and their families on both an inpatient and outpatient basis, with its dedicated cardiomyopathy clinics seeing more than 750 visits last year.

The CCF accreditation program was established in 2017 to recognize excellence in diagnosing and treating pediatric cardiomyopathy and to assist families in selecting highly skilled cardiomyopathy care. 

The national accreditation accounts for a hospital meeting CCF’s criteria of managing a high volume of cardiomyopathy patients, offering a variety of pediatric services, specializing in the treatment and management of cardiomyopathy in children, and affiliating with an academic research institution. 

The Heart Institute at UPMC Children’s has one of the top-ranked cardiology and heart surgery programs in the country, according to U.S. News & World Report, with surgeons who provide complex, life-saving heart surgeries, including transplantation.