Death on transport: a follow-up program

St. Louis Children's Hospital has a self-contained, designated neonatal and pediatric transport team. In 1990, this team initiated a formalized death follow-up program. Its purposes are to provide feedback to referring hospitals, conduct an internal review, meet quality improvement guidelines, and educate transport team members. The program differs from the traditional morbidity and mortality conference, which provides an educational and review forum only. Death follow-up meetings are held quarterly, and 61 follow-ups were done between January 1990 and December 1993. (Follow-up was done on all deaths occurring during transport as well as those occurring within 24 hours of transport).