Overview of Transport and Physician Referral

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Modes of Transport
Transport Team Programs

Specialized pediatric transport team members are on call 24 hours a day to provide emergency neonatal/pediatric transport service to Children's Hospital of Wisconsin from referring facilities via ambulance, rotor-wing, and fixed-wing. The transport team stabilizes and transports premature infants, newborns requiring immediate surgery, children in respiratory distress, children who have ingested poison and other critically ill or injured children. Children's Transport primarily serves Wisconsin, northern Illinois and the upper peninsula of Michigan, but has traveled across the United States bringing patients to Children's Hospital.

Children's Hospital developed its first dedicated Transport Team of three pediatric nurses in 1988, providing the capability to staff one in-house team. Through the services provided by the Children's Transport Team, 592 children were brought to Children's Hospital that first year. Over 90 percent of these transports involved a physician-based team. Today, Children's Transport is comprised of a Transport Nurse Clinician (TNC) and a Transport Respiratory Care Practitioner (TRCP) for nearly 95 percent of all transports. The remaining transports are staffed with a physician, depending on the patient's acuity.

The TNCs and TRCPs expanded their scope of practice in 1999. Team members perform skills such as advanced airway management and intubations, thoracentesis and arterial sticks. All team members are required to be BLS, PALS and NRP certified, and most hold additional certifications including STABLE, TNCC, TNS and PEPP. Many members of our staff are course instructors for these certifications.

Since Children's Hospital is a Pediatric Level One Trauma Center, team members are required to maintain at least eight hours of trauma education annually. The team also participates in defined roles on the Children's Hospital Code and Trauma Teams. To maintain Federal Aviation Safety Standards, they are required to have Rotor-wing and Fixed-wing safety in-services every six months.

The transport team has 20 dedicated TNCs. TNCs bring at least five years of exclusive pediatric experience and at least three years of critical care experience, with a background ranging from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit to Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and the Emergency Department and Trauma Center. In 2004, eight dedicated TRCPs transferred from the respiratory department to Children's Transport, enabling the team to expand its services.

To connect children and their families with the extensive and exclusive services and programs of Children's Hospital, the demand for transports has increased from 1,130 transports in 2002, to nearly 1,500 in 2006. In 2002, the capability to provide nitric oxide on transport was implemented. As the Cardiovascular Surgery team expanded their services to St. Joseph's Hospital in Marshfield, Wis., a mobile ECMO program was developed, making Children's Transport 1 of only 4 transport programs in the country to perform mobile ECMO.

The Children's Transport and Physician Referral Center was created in 2002 to offer 24 hour a day access to physicians and other health care professionals to specialty consults and services. Through one toll-free call, the Physician Referral Center allows physicians and other health care professionals to discuss challenging patient cases and gain management recommendations, improving relationships between regional health care providers. The center is staffed by TNCs who often serve as the first link of communication within Children's Hospital. Since its inception, the Physician Referral Center has fielded over 3,000 calls.

Children's Transport Team has provided services for more than 10,000 children, and has evolved into one of the region's leading transport teams. The highly visible team is a resource throughout the hospital and community, providing a positive, professional extension of Children's Hospital of Wisconsin. The team serves as the first link to referring staff, facilities, children and their families.

Call Children's Transport and Physician Referral toll-free (800) 266-0366.