Inpatient and outpatient treatment
Inpatient admissions
Central to the CAMP program is the inpatient service. Typically the admissions include detailed physiologic recording during spontaneous breathing and assisted ventilation (a respirator) while the child is awake and asleep, in addition to assessment in varying activities of wakefulness — exercise, playing video games, doing school work, reading, with and without artificial ventilatory support. Many other complementary tests from other pediatric disciplines are performed as well, all aimed to improve the clinical care and management of these special children.
These clinical studies assist in establishing the diagnosis, clarifying the nature of the physiologic compromise in multiple organ systems affected by the autonomic nervous system, providing comprehensive recommendations for ongoing ventilator or diaphragm pacemaker management, and designing interventions to improve the quality of life for these otherwise quite capable children.
An inpatient evaluation typically lasts from Sunday late afternoon to Thursday afternoon.
Outpatient evaluations
In addition to inpatient services, a limited out-patient service is offered, though near-exclusively for complicated patients with neurological disorders. By 2012, the outpatient laboratory will be expanded considerably to include children in whom autonomic testing is requested.