For Neonatal Patient Transfers
The referring physician calls the NICU EMERGENCY CHET LINE: 858-966-5888. Our main campus NICU will then connect you with the transport neonatologist.
The Neonatal team provides emergency neonatal advanced life support to more than 800 infants every year throughout Southern California. We provide immediate response for delivery room resuscitation and stabilization of newborns and infants to hospitals in San Diego, Imperial and Riverside counties. Modes of transport are ambulance, fixed-wing airplane or helicopter.
The team consists of an advanced trained NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) registered nurse and NICU respiratory therapist who are certified to provide assessment, resuscitation and stabilization of the newborn. The team is able to perform intubation, arterial puncture, umbilical line insertion, thoracentesis and administration of emergency medications and maintain communication with an attending neonatologist.
A neonatal nurse practitioner or neonatal physician may be added to the team as the patient’s condition warrants.
In addition to emergency transport, the Neonatal team also provides return transport of convalescing infants to their referral hospitals.
Services we provide
- Attendance at high-risk deliveries upon request
- Non-invasive ventilation
- Mechanical ventilation
- Specialty gas delivery
- Inhaled nitric oxide
- Heliox mixture
- Nitrogen (sub-ambient) therapy
- Active whole-body cooling
- ECMO transports
- Consultation with a neonatologist
- Return (back) transports
- Outreach education
- Simulation lab
- Public events
See what to expect when arranging a transport, including transport ETA and the records to have ready when our team arrives.
Outreach Education
Our Emergency Transport team believes that education is the best way to help facilities care for critically ill newborns. We have an active Outreach Education program that provides classes by neonatal transport personnel in emergency resuscitation and stabilization of the newborn. To request information on classes or educational opportunities, please contact Shelby Standefer, B.S.R.T., R.R.T., N.P.S., C-NPT, at sstandefer@rchsd.org.
Administration
- Medical Director: Jose Honold, M.D.
- Manager: Kaitlin Crafton, MSN, RNC, NNP-BC
- Director of Neonatal Services: Rebecca Schiff, DNP