UAB Medicine Critical Care Transport

UAB Medicine Critical Care Transport, called CCT, is a hospital program of UAB Medicine in Birmingham, Alabama. The service has been in operation since 1983 and has completed more than 60,000 transports.

CCT moves patients between medical facilities across the United States and around the world. Patients do not have to be going to or from UAB Hospital. The service is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

CCT arranges the whole trip from bedside to bedside, including ground transport before and after flights. Its twin engine jet has an onboard intensive care unit, and it can often fly above or around weather that helicopters cannot. For ground transports within 125 miles of Birmingham, CCT has five ICU equipped vehicles.

Each adult team includes an ICU trained registered nurse and a registered respiratory therapist. Physicians are available 24/7 as needed. For neonatal patients, a neonatal nurse practitioner or respiratory therapist joins the team. The service requires nurses to have at least three years of ICU experience, and all of its respiratory therapists are registered.

The onboard capabilities include ventilator management, BiPAP, high flow oxygen, nitric oxide, neonatal high frequency ventilation and intra-aortic balloon pumps. They also include ventricular assist devices, ECMO management, intracranial pressure monitoring, temporary pacing and neonatal temperature management.

CCT has been accredited by CAMTS since 1999. Its teams have traveled to 48 states and 38 countries, and the team has transported over 700 patients on an intra-aortic balloon pump. Medical control comes from attending physicians at UAB Hospital.

Services

• Critical care transport
• Bedside to bedside transport
• Jet transport with onboard ICU
• Ground ICU transport
• Neonatal transport
• Ventilator management
• ECMO management
• Ventricular assist device transport
• Intra-aortic balloon pump transport
• Nitric oxide and neonatal ventilation