UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh Introduces New Pediatric Critical Care Ambulance

UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh today unveiled a new state-of-the-art ambulance dedicated to transporting critically ill babies and children from hospitals within 150 miles of Pittsburgh.

The ambulance is a partnership between UPMC Children’s Hospital and STAT MedEvac and will expedite response times to community hospitals in the area to provide more timely care for patients.

“We worked with Lifeline and STAT MedEvac to build this ambulance from the ground up,” said Brad Kuch, M.H.A., R.R.T.-N.P.S., F.A.A.R.C., director, Transport Team at UPMC Children’s. “Because of our valued partnership with both, we have oversight of the use of the ambulance and we’ll be better able to meet the needs of the hospitals that contact us needing to transport patients to UPMC Children’s.”

The ambulance is equipped with a generator, additional oxygen, hydraulic lift, WiFi and a camera system that offers staff in the front of the cab the ability to see what is happening in the ambulance portion.

“Collaborating on the design of this new ambulance, we created a safe, efficient, state-of-the-art transport platform meeting the needs of pediatric patients and the compassionate, highly skilled medical providers who care for them,” said Doug Garretson, president/CEO, Center for Emergency Medicine of Western PA, Inc./STAT MedEvac.

“The immediate access of the ambulance allows for a faster departure, which leads to a faster response time, and a timelier bedside arrival,” said Melissa Riley, M.D., medical director, Neonatal Transport and Outreach Services,” UPMC Children's. “This is also beneficial to our community facilities – a critically pediatric/neonatal patient occupies a lot of time and resources and getting our team there more quickly allows the community hospital staff to get back to their other patients.”

Because the ambulance will be dedicated to transporting babies and children only, the colorful, eye-catching vehicle features UPMC Children’s logo and colors.

“Our overall goal is to increase our responsiveness to our community, and one of the most important aspects of doing so is ensuring that our team members are able to travel to them quickly and as safely as possible,” added Kuch.

The UPMC Children’s team transports critically ill patients by helicopter, airplane, and ambulance from as far as Washington, D.C., Buffalo, N.Y., Richmond, Va, even Osaka, Japan.

For more information on the new pediatric ambulance, visit www.chp.edu.