2023 Volume 59 Issue 3 Pages 349-353
When neonatal transport to our center is required on weekdays during daytime, NICU doctors and nurses ride together in the neonatal transport doctor car. At nighttime and on holidays and weekends, staff from the maternity clinic use fire department ambulances for transport. We compared 238 cases that were transported and admitted to the NICU between January 2018 and December 2021. Cases were compared in terms of the time from birth to request, chief complaint, perinatal information, and treatment in the NICU, according to whether the transport occurred on a weekday during daytime, or at nighttime or on a weekend or holiday. Regardless of the time of request, among neonatal transports up to 12 hours of age, approximately 80% of the chief complaints were asphyxia and respiratory failure. Moreover, despite the severity of the illness, more cases were admitted at nighttime and on weekends and holidays than on weekdays during daytime. Therefore, many cases could not be transported by the neonatal transport doctor car. Neonatal transport by doctor car has the benefits of enabling an early start of treatment and safe transport of newborns. There is an urgent need to establish a system that allows newborns to be transported 24 hours a day by doctor cars.
