The Impact of Air Ambulance Transport on Neonatal Outcomes

Many referring facilities and transport teams function under the assumption that faster is better. However, data on the benefits of air ambulance (AA) use in neonatal transport are sparse. At our referral hospital in northwest Ohio, we compared the total time from telephone request for transport to arrival in the referral nursery by ground ambulance vs AA for each of our referring facilities and evaluated if this had an impact on patient outcomes. Time from transport call to arrival at the referring hospital was 72 ± 17 minutes by AA and 95 ± 23 minutes by ground ambulance. We demonstrated that although it was approximately 25% faster to fly to a referring hospital compared with traveling by ground, the time saved had no impact on outcome. On the basis of these data, we continue to encourage ground transport whenever possible and reserve the use of the AA for the sickest neonates located in the furthest referring hospitals.

Keywords: Neonatal transport, Air ambulance, Outcomes, Ground ambulance, Transport times