( Version 1.0  01/16/02 - 07/15/02)

The current Vanderbilt NICU is designed and staffed to care for 54 babies at a time. However, this number of patients should not be considered an absolute and babies needing tertiary care services may be admitted in excess of 54 if bedspace and nursing staff can be made available. If inadequate nurse staffing or equipment shortages appear to prohibit admitting a patient, the attending on call should be made aware, and either Dr. Walsh or Dr. Cotton consulted before triaging a patient to another facility.

If a transport call is received during a bed shortage/census crisis, the VUMC physician taking the call should never refuse a patient.

If the patient in question has a problem whose needs can be uniquely met at Vanderbilt, all possible efforts should be made to bring the baby to VUMC. Because Vanderbilt is the only facility in its region which can provide cardiac and pediatric surgery services for newborns, patients with cardiac and surgical issues must be accepted. Term cardiac patients, however, can frequently be admitted to the PICU. These decisions need to be made in conjunction with the NICU attending, the cardiology or surgical attending, and the PICU attending.

Potential ECMO patients should not be deferred unless all ECMO capacity at VUMC is occupied. Similarly, patients who are candidates for iNO therapy should be considered potential ECMO patients and are uniquely served by VUMC. If the NICU cannot admit an ECMO patient, contact the PICU before sending the patient to Louisville or Arkansas. ECMO triage decisions should be made in conjunction with Sue Hix, RN, the ECMO Coordinator and Dr. Bill Walsh.

A patient who requires pediatric subspecialty consultation (genetics, neurology, etc.) should also be considered an essential VUMC admission.

If admission to Vanderbilt is absolutely impossible, a patient whose needs could be met by another Level III NICU (prematurity, respiratory distress, etc.) may be transported by the Angel team to either Baptist Hospital or Centennial Hospital here in Nashville. The physician taking the transport request should contact the on-call neonatologist at these institutions to request bed space. Babies who could be managed in a Level II Special Care Nursery and are located in the vicinity of Clarksville can sometimes be transported directly to Gateway. The transport physician should contact Dr. Bradley Stancombe or Dr. Brian Carter to assess this possibility.

If Angel is used to transport an acute patient to another facility, the transport physician at VUMC should make sure the referring physician understands that the patient is not being admitted to Vanderbilt. The transport team will also make sure this is clear to the parents when obtaining consent for transport. The transport team should bring the original medical record forms for the patient to VUMC to create an outpatient medical record. The receiving hospital should receive photocopies. The medical receptionist should request an outpatient blue addressograph card with the patient’s information.

Because VUMC was responsible for transporting a patient admission to an alternate nursery, VUMC will also take responsibility for back-transporting that patient at the accepting nursery’s request.

Resolved at Regionalization and Transport Meeting 1/16/02.