Advanced Technology and Training
CHOC’s “mobile intensive care unit” includes a fleet of five state-of-the-art ambulances and a helicopter that are all Wi-Fi enabled, stocked with the latest devices, and equipped with customized suspension that provides the smoothest ride for our tiniest patients.
We also have a dedicated EC 135 helicopter, CHOC 1, parked on one of CHOC’s two rooftop helipads, allowing the team to depart and arrive at their destination quickly.
The team consists of registered nurses and respiratory care practitioners. All team members maintain advanced credentials and certifications, in addition to advanced scope skills. Critical care physicians from CHOC’s neonatal and pediatric intensive care units are available to assist the transport team as needed.
- CHOC was the first hospital in the United States to take high-frequency ventilation “on the road” to treat fragile patients with respiratory or cardiac failure.
- Specialty transport services include high-frequency ventilation, inhaled nitric oxide, high flow oxygen therapy, nasal CPAP, neonatal therapeutic hypothermia, intubation, LMA insertion, video laryngoscopy for difficult airway, needle decompression, umbilical venous catheter placement, tele-medicine consultation, ECMO transport and neonatal and pediatric resuscitation.
- In Southern Calfiornia, CHOC is one of a few hospitals with the ability to provide extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) during transport.
- Our Transport Team RNs and RCPs are advanced scope skilled and trained to perform airway intubation (ETT and LMA), umbilical line placement, EZ-IO insertion and needle thoracentesis.
- To prevent neurological damage, most importantly in newborns, the Transport Team can immediately begin therapeutic hypothermia at another hospital, using the CritiCool™ transport unit. In fact, CHOC served as the Federal Aviation Administration test site to approve the use of the CritiCool™ device while in flight.
- The transport team is equipped with RP-Xpress®, a telemedicine device that allows CHOC physicians to remotely assess and monitor a patient from miles away. The device’s medical-grade camera and dual audio modes give physicians the ability to have face-to-face consultations with patients and families, and the health care professionals who are on the ground.
