Home Monitoring Program

Studies have shown that being surrounded by family, friends and the familiarity of home can help a child recover better. The Home Monitoring Program at Cook Children's Heart Center helps our heart patients who are well enough, return home with their families as safely as possible.

Depending on your child's needs, home monitoring is done by one of two methods, either scheduled reporting with your child's medical team, or through our CHAMP App.

Scheduled reporting method

Sheduled reporting enables our medical team to monitor patients who have a shunt-dependent blood flow and complex congenital heart anatomy during the period between staged cardiac surgeries. The program transitions patients with complex congenital heart disease from inpatient to home and helps detect problems before they become urgent life-threatening situations. This keeps emergency visits to a minimum and allows instead for clinic evaluation or direct hospital admission.

The program begins with the hospital discharge process. Our Home Monitoring Program Nurse Clinician Coordinator facilitates the arrangements for home care and provides supportive individualized education to each family. Each family is given individualized "When to call" parameters as well as 24/7 contact phone numbers. The program's nurse coordinator keeps close contact with each family and remains available for assistance. Should any concern or problem arise, early intervention is promptly initiated.

Brinley, age 2, was enrolled in the Home Monitoring Program between surgeries to treat tricuspid atresia and transposition of the great artery with ventricular septal defect.

CHAMP app

The CHAMP® (Cardiac High Acuity Monitoring Program) is a home monitoring system that makes it possible for babies who are born with single ventricle heart disease to be at home during the critical period between the first and second stages of surgery.

The app uses a proprietary application on a tablet provided by Cook Children’s cardiology program. It is designed so that parents are able to take an active part in their child's medical care when at home.

Through the application, you will enter daily information about your child such as oxygen saturation rates, food intake and heart rate. This information is directly accessible to your child's cardiology team at all times. Baseline data is set specifically for your child. If the numbers you enter go above or below those baselines, your child's cardiology team is immediately notified, and will determine if your child needs to be brought in for a visit.

Through the CHAMP monitoring application you have the reassurance that our specialized team of doctors is available to you 24/7. It's added comfort knowing that no matter how far your are from Cook Children's, our team is as close as the tablet.

Developed in Kansas City to collect data and best practices for these special patients, Cook Children's is currently one of only a few health care programs in U.S. using the application.

Meet Harper. See her story and learn how the CHAMP app helped her and her family.

Appointments and referrals

Call 682-885-2140

Rare and complex congenital heart defects don’t always present a clear cut method of treatment. Often, there are multiple ways of approaching the diagnosis. Our physicians also are available to provide second opinions for families seeking alternative treatment options. If you would like to schedule an appointment, refer a patient or speak to our staff, please call our offices at 682-885-2140.