When a child born at a Southern California hospital needs an immediate transfer to a NICU, it’s Rady Children’s to the rescue. The Hospital’s Children’s Hospital Emergency Transport (CHET) teams provide around-the-clock critical care transport to more than 2,000 neonatal and pediatric patients each year—even when the receiving hospital is not part of Rady Children’s Health.
Each team is composed of respiratory therapists and registered nurses who are experts in caring for fragile babies.
“Our CHET nurses have extensive experience in neonatal ICU care. The majority of them have worked at Level 4 NICUs, such as Rady Children’s, and have gained that expertise in the unit, as well as additional expertise for transporting patients—stabilizing them
quickly and safely transporting them to where they can get the highest level of care required,” says Rebecca Schiff, DNP.
Once the team is called, they spring into action, traveling by ambulance or helicopter to wherever they are needed—even if that extends beyond their typical travel zone.
“We’ve even flown to Hawaii, and we’ve had a couple of trips to Saipan where we’ve taken some very critically ill babies and flown them in a fixed-wing plane all the way back to Rady Children’s,” Schiff says.