The Effect of Team Configuration on the Incidence of Adverse Events in Pediatric Critical Care Transport

Specialty pediatric transport teams are widely used for pediatric interfacility transport in the United States, with little industry consensus on optimal team configuration. The aim of this study is to assess the quality of the nurse/paramedic specialty team configuration as indirectly measured by the rate of adverse events in these transports.

Retrospective analysis of pediatric transport data from a hospital-based dedicated pediatric/neonatal transport team was conducted for patients transported in 2016. Data were categorized by general characteristics of transport and analyzed for the occurrence of adverse events.

Five hundred sixty-four cases were analyzed. Cases were described by team configuration and then by transport mode, duration, time, patient age and acuity, and disposition. The overall rate of adverse event incidence was 8.3%, chiefly centered in device and process domains. There was no significant difference in the rate of adverse events between team configurations.

There was no significant difference in the rate of adverse event occurrence in nurse/paramedic team configurations versus nurse/nurse configuration. Using critical care paramedics on pediatric transport teams enables a larger volume of patients to be transported to definitive care without concerns for decrease in quality or safety.