Neonatal emergency transport teams and general emergency departments: Who will intubate the neonate?

Abstract

Confidence treating critically ill infants presenting to general ED may be limited by inexperience, with procedures deferred until specialised transport teams arrive. This retrospective cohort study analysed critical procedures performed by referring ED physicians, compared with a neonatal emergency transport service, on infants transferred over a 12-month period. All 150 eligible infants were included, with median (interquartile range) age 28 (16-43) days. Forty critical procedures were performed in this cohort. Of 26 intubations, 17 (65%) were performed by local ED physicians. Referring ED physicians perform the majority of critical procedures where infants require inter-hospital transfer by neonatal emergency transport service.