Cohen Children's Medical Center Pediatric and Neonatal Critical Care Transport

The pediatric and neonatal critical care transport service is part of Cohen Children's Medical Center in New Hyde Park, New York. It moves newborns, children and young adults by ground and by air. It covers the New York metropolitan area and beyond.

The service has a central call center and a team trained on intensive care equipment adapted for newborns, infants and children. A rapid team launch sends staff and equipment out to the community. Care starts as soon as a health care provider contacts the team, before the child reaches the hospital.

The service is fully joined with the Northwell air and ground ambulance system. It says this leads to better response times. The Northwell SkyHealth medical helicopter supports fast response. The ground and air ambulances are custom designed. The team is dispatched through the Northwell Health Center for Emergency Medical Services.

The team includes transport nurses, physicians, respiratory therapists, paramedics and EMTs. All of them receive advanced training in ground and air transport medicine. The nurses hold pediatric advanced life support, neonatal resuscitation, trauma nursing, critical care and certified flight registered nurse credentials. A doctor trained in neonatal or pediatric critical care goes along when needed.

Patients are taken to Cohen Children's Medical Center. It offers a 24 hour emergency department, neonatal and pediatric intensive care, trauma care and subspecialty care. The team also moves patients to and from subacute facilities when the case is not an emergency. It handles transfers to other regional centers, including regional burn centers.

Transport capabilities include complex fluid management, mechanical ventilation, ECMO, invasive monitoring, high frequency ventilation for lung rescue, sedation, trauma care, and vasoactive medications and blood products. The team also uses transport incubators, monitors, nitric oxide and chest drainage systems.

The service encourages family presence. In most cases one parent can ride with the child. Callers who arrange a transfer should have patient details ready, such as the sending hospital, the diagnosis and consent for flight where it applies. SkyHealth staff decide on any accompanying person when they arrive.

Services

• Pediatric critical care transport
• Neonatal critical care transport
• Air ambulance transport
• Ground ambulance transport
• ECMO transport
• Mechanical ventilation
• High frequency ventilation
• Trauma transport
• Subacute facility transfers
• Regional burn center transfers