• Emily Colyer, Megan Sorensen, Shirley Wiggins, and Leeza Struwe.
• Pediatric/Neonatal Critical Care Transport Team, Children's Hospital & Medical Center, Omaha, NE. Electronic address: ecolyer@childrensomaha.org.
• Air Med. J. 2018 May 1; 37 (3): 186-198.

ObjectiveSpecialty pediatric transport teams are widely used for pediatric interfacility transport in the United States, with little industry consensus on optimal team configuration. The aim of this study is to assess the quality of the nurse/paramedic specialty team configuration as indirectly measured by the rate of adverse events in these transports.MethodsRetrospective analysis of pediatric transport data from a hospital-based dedicated pediatric/neonatal transport team was conducted for patients transported in 2016. Data were categorized by general characteristics of transport and analyzed for the occurrence of adverse events.ResultsFive hundred sixty-four cases were analyzed. Cases were described by team configuration and then by transport mode, duration, time, patient age and acuity, and disposition. The overall rate of adverse event incidence was 8.3%, chiefly centered in device and process domains. There was no significant difference in the rate of adverse events between team configurations.ConclusionThere was no significant difference in the rate of adverse event occurrence in nurse/paramedic team configurations versus nurse/nurse configuration. Using critical care paramedics on pediatric transport teams enables a larger volume of patients to be transported to definitive care without concerns for decrease in quality or safety.Copyright © 2018 Air Medical Journal Associates. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

25 keywords...

hide…