Transport Services

Quick Transport for Critically Ill Patients

Transport services

The Children’s Hospital Transport Team is dedicated to the care and safe transport of critically ill or injured pediatric and neonatal patients. Children’s Hospital dispatches a critical care transport team by ambulance, helicopter, or fixed wing aircraft to transport these medically fragile patients from a referring facility. The Transport Team performs more than 550 critical care transports annually.

The Transport team

The Transport Team is staffed with specially trained nurses and respiratory therapist who are capable of stabilizing the most critically ill newborns, infants and children through age 21 years. Each team member has at least three years of experience in neonatal or pediatric critical care and receives annual flight training in transport skills. Our team also trains quarterly and is credentialed by our physicians to administer advanced medical treatment procedures in the field. The in-house team is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week and all staff are CPR, PALS, and NRP certified.

How to refer a patient

The Children’s Hospital Transfer Center is staffed 24/7 with registered nurses who answer all calls from referring physicians or facility staff. The nurse will collect the necessary patient information and will initiate a three-way call with the accepting physician. The Transfer Center Nurse will immediately activate the Transport Team to begin mobilization. The Transfer Center Nurse will remain involved and coordinate all transport logistics. Upon request for transport, the team specially configures the ambulance or aircraft with the life-support equipment needed for that patient and dispatches the crew within 15 minutes of activation.

Call 855.CHNOLA1 or 855.246.6521.

Fleet and Equipment

Ground:
The Children’s Hospital Transport Team utilizes an AEV Super-long Mercedes Sprinter Ambulance. This ambulance is a fully customized Critical Care ground ambulance complete with medical air and oxygen.

Rotor:
The Children’s Hospital helicopter is an EC-145 twin jet-engine aircraft and is the largest dedicated pediatric transport helicopter in the State of Louisiana. Part 135 services provided by Metro Aviation, Inc.

Fixed Wing:
The Children’s Hospital Transport Team utilizes a King Air B-200 fixed wing aircraft. This aircraft is dual-patient configured and capable of transporting twin isolettes.

All three modes of transport vehicles are fully configured with medical air, oxygen, and special life-support equipment to care for the most medically fragile pediatric and neonatal patients.

Transport Capabilities:

• Neonatal transport incubators
• Twin isolette transports
• Cardiorespiratory and hemodynamic monitoring
• Cardiac defibrillation
• Cardiac pacing
• High-frequency oscillatory ventilators (HFOV)
• Nitric oxide therapy
• Transport phototherapy lights
• Transport therapeutic hypothermia (Tecotherm)
• Portable blood gas analyzers (iStat)
• Video intubation equipment (C-Mac)
• IV pumps
• Emergency medications

The referring physician and/or members of the referring hospital staff are encouraged to discuss any concerns with a member of senior management by calling 504.822.6306 and asking for the administrator on call.