Neonatal emergency transport teams and general emergency departments: Who will intubate the neonate?

Objective: Confidence treating critically ill infants presenting to general ED may be limited by inexperience, with procedures deferred until specialised transport teams arrive.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study analysed critical procedures performed by referring ED physicians, compared with a neonatal emergency transport service, on infants transferred over a 12-month period.

Results: All 150 eligible infants were included, with median (interquartile range) age 28 (16-43) days. Forty critical procedures were performed in this cohort. Of 26 intubations, 17 (65%) were performed by local ED physicians.

Conclusion: Referring ED physicians perform the majority of critical procedures where infants require inter-hospital transfer by neonatal emergency transport service.