When your child is critically ill, you want to know that everything possible is being done to help him or her. It is sometimes necessary for these patients to be transported from local and regional referring hospitals to facilities with highly specialized resources. Our Critical Care Transport Team uses a specially designed mobile intensive care ambulance to transport sick babies and children who need urgent medical care to one of our three neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) or the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) at St. Mary's Hospital.

At Bon Secours, you can rest assured that your infant or child is in good hands — not just inside our state-of-the-art facilities, but on the way here. Our transport ambulance is like a NICU/PICU on wheels. Inside, your child will be cared for by our highly-trained Transport Team, which includes a registered nurse, a respiratory therapist, and an emergency medical technician or paramedic. A type of clinician that specializes in the care of very sick or premature newborns called a neonatologist, a neonatal nurse practitioner, or a pediatric critical care physician (pediatric intensivist) may also be on hand. Together, these dedicated professionals can provide your child with ventilation, oxygen, resuscitation, and other critical services to help them safely reach the hospital.

The Transport Team uses the most up-to-date equipment available, including invasive and noninvasive cardiac and respiratory monitoring, ventilators, and emergency medications, and can administer care from the most basic to the highly advanced with the technology available on our ambulance. Through advanced mobile technology, including web cameras and electronic stethoscopes, the Team functions under the supervision of a pediatric critical care physician who provides feedback and guidance throughout the transport using the latest in telemedicine.

During transport, the Team is available to discuss the child's condition and the current plan of care with the referring hospital and/or physician. Once your child is stabilized, the transport nurse will call you and report on his or her condition and the current plan of care. In preparation for your child's return to the referring hospital, our Transport Coordinator will provide regular updates on his or her progress.

Our goal at Bon Secours is to provide good help and excellent care not only to the patient, but to the family as a whole. The staff and specialists of the Transport Team are here to share their expertise with you and to those children and infants who most need it.