GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Children in need of emergency care could soon be transported to Helen DeVos Children's Hospital in a new ambulance specially designed for pediatric patients.
The hospital's new pediatric critical care transport team, announced this week, boasts a new Life EMS ambulance outfitted with ventilators, infusion pumps and other equipment designed for children, said Abbie Woudwyk, a nurse practitioner who manages the team.
The team is staffed by nurse practitioners, physician assistants, registered nurses, respiratory therapists and a medical director.
"We're essentially a pediatric ICU on wheels," Woudwyk said Friday, Feb. 28.
In addition, the hospital's neonatal transport team, which provides intensive care for premature, newborn babies, was also outfitted with a new ambulance. Last year, the neonatal team transported 324 patients from 29 different hospitals.
Woudwyk said the new ambulance service is important because children need specialty care. It's also beneficial because local ambulance services can occasionally get busy serving other emergency calls, she said.
"Kids aren't just little adults," Woudwyk said. "That's why it's important to have people who really know how to take care of them and have this extra resource."
Life EMS, which is based in Grand Rapids and operates throughout West Michigan, is staffing the ambulance in partnership with the children's hospital.
The pediatric critical care transport team will serve children throughout Michigan, and it expects to transport 400 to 500 patients in its first year, Corewell said in a release.
Each instance is case specific, Woudwyk said, but Aeromed can provide emergency transportation for children further from Grand Rapids, while the ambulance can provide a lift for kids closer to the hospital.
"Our team has spent many months training in our children's hospital," she said. "They've spent time in our emergency department getting trained with many experts to learn how to take advanced care of these patients."