Pediatric & neonatal critical care transport
About us
Our pediatric and neonatal critical care transport service provides advanced ground and air transport in the New York metropolitan area and beyond for newborns through young adults. We provide a central call-in center and a team that is trained with the latest intensive care equipment specially adapted for newborns, infants and children. With a rapid team launch, we bring our best personnel and equipment to our community so that advanced care can be started before your child’s arrival at the treatment center. And this expert care begins the moment we are contacted by a health care provider.
Our full integration with the Northwell air and ground ambulance system leads to better response times and the exceptional care your child deserves. Our high-volume service keeps us experienced in all common and rare forms of disease, and we’re backed by the full spectrum of pediatric medical and surgical subspecialists. Our specialized team is available throughout the entire transport for guidance and care management.
Our team
Our team includes dedicated pediatric and neonatal transport nurses, physicians, respiratory therapists, paramedics and EMTs. Our entire team receives advanced training in ground and air transport medicine, and our transport nurses have pediatric advanced life support, neonatal resuscitation, trauma nursing core course, critical care registered nurse and certified flight registered nurse certifications. Physicians trained in neonatal or pediatric critical care accompany us on transports if needed.
We encourage family presence on transports, and in most cases, we can transport one parent with their child.
Northwell Health dispatch center
Our pediatric and neonatal critical care transport team is dispatched through the Northwell Health Center for Emergency Medical Services. During the coordination of transfer process, referring clinicians have access to the full breadth of pediatric expertise within Cohen Children’s Medical Center.
When calling to arrange for a transfer, please have the following information available to initiate a new transaction with our transfer center agents:
- Caller name and callback phone number
- Referring provider name and phone number
- Name of sending hospital and location of patient within the hospital
- Patient name and date of birth
- Patient height and weight
- Patient current location and unit phone number
- Patient clinical status, diagnosis and medical service(s) needed
- Requested receiving facility (if known)
- Any special medical needs, medication or equipment that will be needed by the transferring team (e.g., bariatric patient, drips, blood products or assist devices)
- Patient consent for flight (where applicable)
- Weight of any potential accompanying individual (acceptance of any accompanying individual is made by SkyHealth staff upon arrival)
To arrange a transfer, call (516) 719-KIDS (5437).
Our services
Services include stabilizing and transporting patients to our flagship location, Cohen Children’s Medical Center, which provides the full spectrum of pediatric care, including a 24/7 emergency department and neonatal/pediatric intensive care, as well as trauma and subspecialty services.
Our transport capabilities include:
- Complex fluid management
- Conventional mechanical ventilation
- Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO)
- Invasive monitoring
- Neonatal and pediatric lung rescue (high frequency ventilator)
- Noninvasive mechanical ventilation
- Respiratory distress management
- Sedation
- Trauma
- Vasoactive medications and blood products
Our transport team participates in non-emergent transport to and from subacute facilities, as well as acute and subacute transports to other regional centers, including regional burn centers.
Advanced technology
We use state-of-the-art technology to provide extraordinary care:
- Northwell’s Center for Emergency Medical Services and the SkyHealth medical helicopter allow for highly specialized and rapid responses.
- Our leading-edge, high frequency ventilators and inhaled nitric oxide therapies were the first in the area to treat infants and children in advanced respiratory failure.
- Our ground and air ambulances are custom designed, well maintained and have an excellent response time.
- We use advanced transport ventilators, monitors, incubators and medications to improve the health of children in the field.
- Our transport team uses the most up-to-date equipment, including invasive and noninvasive cardio-respiratory monitoring, transport nitric oxide, newborn and pediatric ventilators, emergency medications, chest drainage systems, cervical spine immobilization equipment and ECMO.
Ground transportation
Northwell Health’s Center for Emergency Medical Services (CEMS) is the largest hospital-based ambulance service in the New York metropolitan area and is one of the largest in the country. Covering more than 1,800 square miles throughout the five boroughs and Long Island, our emergency medical technicians and paramedics pride themselves on delivering the best possible care to more than 120,000 patients each year.
Rotor wing air transportation
Every second counts in an emergency. That’s why we have SkyHealth, a state-of-the-art emergency helicopter service that greatly reduces the time a critically ill or injured patient spends outside of the acute care environment. Flying over traffic at 135 miles an hour, the SkyHealth helicopter offers the fastest and safest route to and from any medical facility in the northeast region.
Educational outreach
Our team provides neonatal and pediatric case reviews and outreach education conferences to acute care and pre-hospital clinicians within our referral region.
To schedule education, outreach or a public relations event, email [email protected].
Leadership
Transport director, emergency department
Transport director, NICU
Transport director, PICU
