Abstract 1370 Poster Session II, Sunday, 5/2 (poster 40)

Regional neonatal intensive care centres must provide effective and safe transport services. Transport services differ greatly in distances traveled, mode of transport, and in levels of expertise provided for support. We sought to determine if differences in outcome could be detected between selected Canadian regional transport teams.

Method: Health status before and after transport was recorded with the Alberta Neonatal Transport Stabilization Score (ANTSS) which categorized seven items (temperature, respiratory distress, skin perfusion, blood pressure, oxygenation, responsiveness and blood glucose level). Each scored 0-3 to provide a maximum (optimal) score of 14. Pre-scores were recorded on arrival in the sending hospital; post-scores on arrival at the regional centre. A generalized estimation equation was used for regression.

Results: Eight teams were compared. Of 2128 transports, 1383 or 65% provided complete reports. Completion rates for each site varied from 20% to 82%. ANTSS increased in all teams (mean 10.8 (pre) and 11.7 (post))(p<0.001). The change in score was strongly (p<0.001related to pre-score and birthweight category. After adjustment for prescore and birthweight, only one team (0) had significantly less improvement in score (β0.14, p<0.03). Scores were not related to distance, duration or mode of transport. Changes in score within category were closely associated with prescore; these were adjusted for prescore and for other significant covariables within categories. Teams that showed significant differences in change in score from the rest of the group were identified (table: *p<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001). Team F had insufficient numbers to reach significance. Data in the table is expressed as percentage improvement (reduction) in suboptimal scores.

Table 1 No caption available
Full size table

Conclusion: Transport teams show significant differences in outcome even after adjustment for initial critical health score. One team showed poorer overall improvement; others showed greater or smaller improvements in specific categories. This information provides opportunities to improve results for specific sites.