Akron Children's > Departments & Programs

Transport Services

Akron Children's transport team and transfer center provide an efficient and safe transfer of critically ill or injured neonates, infants, children as well as adult or pediatric burn patients from other facilities to Akron Children's.

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About Transport Services

We transport critically ill and injured patients by one of our ground mobile intensive care units and rotor wing aircraft (AirBear^®). Every critical care transport is staffed with a critical care transport nurse, paramedic and/or respiratory therapist. In addition to the dedicated neonatal/pediatric transport team, Akron Children’s also offers a ground transport neonatal critical care team as well as an advanced life support (ALS) two-paramedic team.

Akron Children's is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems. Our transport team is staffed by skilled and experienced transport nurses, respiratory therapists and paramedics who assess and prepare patients for transport.

We closely monitor patients during transport and deliver care similar to the care they receive at Akron Children's. We have ongoing communication with a medical control physician during transport.

Children's transport team knows children and what they need. Their equipment is designed especially for children. Akron Children's ground mobile intensive care units and Air Bear® are kid friendly, with art, music and videos inside to help ease a child's fears.

Air Bear® is operated by Med-Trans corporation of Dallas, Texas.

Mission, Vision and Values

Mission: Akron Children’s Transport team, while performing rotorwing and ground transports, is committed to providing quality, safe, reliable, efficient service with dedication to the highest level of compassionate family-centered care. We will provide the highest level of patient assessment and stabilization while ensuring consistent standards of care during transport.

Vision: We are committed to being the leader in providing specialized interfacility transport for sick or injured neonatal and pediatric patients, in addition to serving adults requiring specialized care. Our top priority is the patient; every patient will receive excellent care in the safest environment possible. We believe collaboration and teamwork are essential for success. Our collaborative and team efforts reflect the highest level of safety, ethics and integrity.

Values: We value quality, safety, professionalism, communication, people, teamwork, leadership and ongoing education to provide excellent clinical care to our patients.

Our Transfer Center team consists of paramedics who are trained to get you the assistance you need quickly to:

Arrange a direct admission
Dispatch a transport team to your facility
Arrange air transport

To Arrange a Transport:

Pediatric and Burn Patients Call 800-221-5437 (KIDS)
Akron Neonatal Call 800-362-9693
Mahoning Valley Neonatal Call 330-729-4250
Aultman Neonatal Call 330-363-5433

Our skilled transport nurses, paramedics and respiratory therapists have a minimum of 3 years of critical care experience and have specialty care credentials/ certifications. They complete a rigorous competency-based orientation and keep current with ongoing education and skill assessments in neonatal and pediatric intensive care, emergency medicine and trauma transport medicine.

Our experienced transport team is trained in:

Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS)
Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS)
Advanced Burn Life Support (ABLS)
Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP)
Pediatric Fundamental Critical Care Support (PFCCS)

Dedicated Pediatric Equipment

All of our transport units are kid-friendly with art, music and videos to put children at ease.

Air Transport

Air Bear™, Ohio’s first pediatric-dedicated helicopter, is based at our Akron campus and operated by Med-Trans Corp. of Dallas, TX.

We transport critically ill patients experiencing medical emergencies from community hospitals throughout northern Ohio.
Each flight includes a Med-Trans pilot, dedicated transport nurse, respiratory therapist and paramedic from our critical care transport team.

Ground Transport

Akron Children’s owns and operates 5 mobile intensive care ground units – 4 based at our Akron campus and 1 at our Mahoning Valley Beeghly campus.

Our specialty teams provide regional pediatric/neonatal critical care and pediatric advanced life support (ALS) transport. Ground pediatric/neonatal critical care transports are staffed by a transport nurse, paramedic and respiratory therapist. Ground ALS transports are staffed by 2 paramedics.

Specialized equipment such as invasive and non-invasive cardio-respiratory monitoring, defibrillators, neonatal/pediatric ventilators, oxygen and specialty gases such as nitric oxide and heliox, and trauma critical care equipment are available to care for the complex needs of critically-ill children during preparation for and transport to a higher level of care facility.

Our critical care transport team ensures the safe, efficient transfer of critically ill neonatal and pediatric patients by fixed wing, rotor wing and ground transport.

Our teams have the training and experience to provide transport for infants, children, teens and pediatric burn victims. We provide family-centered care and encourage family presence on transports. In most cases, we can transport 1 parent with their child.

Chaplaincy services are also available to provide spiritual care to families at the referring facility and during transport.

Services include but are not limited to stabilizing and transporting for:

Direct admissions to our NICU, PICU, Heart Center, Trauma Services and Regional Burn Center.
Medical and surgical emergencies such as:
Acute mental status deterioration
Arterial/central lines
Complex fluid management issues
Congenital heart disease
DKA
Ingestion
Organ failure
Post respiratory/cardiac arrest
Respiratory distress/mechanical ventilation
Shock
Trauma
Uncontrolled seizure
Unstable airway
Vasoactive infusion

Our team includes instructors trained to provide CNE/CME credits in ABLS, PALS, ACLS and NRP. Our team provides neonatal and pediatric case reviews and outreach education conferences to acute care and pre-hospital clinicians within our referral region.

To schedule education, outreach or a public relations event, visit www.akronchildrens.org/outreach
For more information, call 330-543-3206 or for education, call 330-543-4077.

Transport Services