NICU nurses take flight,
increasing their REACH
At right, Tess Estocapio, RN, Children’s transport coordinator, helps move an incubator out of a REACH helicopter during a practice run of the new joint service.
Children’s nurses get special training,
assuring faster care for more preemies
REACH helicopters have been providing medical air transport to Bay Area children since 1987. Thanks to a new partnership with Children’s Hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Nursery (NICU), the familiar red choppers can now serve preemies as young as 24 weeks, gestation.
Under a new agreement with Santa Rosa–based REACH Air Medical Services, a Children’s neonatal nurse specialist will now accompany REACH helicopters on neonatal transports. The collaboration took flight in July after 16 Children’s NICU nurses received helicopter transport training. Children’s NICU nurses are now available to fly when needed.
“This gives (REACH) greater acuity in handling newborns,” said Kathy Logee, RN, a REACH flight nurse. REACH handles all types of patients,
said Logee, but has only two flight nurses specializing in neonatal care. This limited REACH’s services, as well as the size of the preemies they could transport.
Bringing Children’s 16 NICU nurses aboard, trained and experienced in handling and moving very small preemies, expands REACH’s capabilities. REACH may now transport by air, tiny preemies that previously had to be transferred more slowly, by road.
With Children’s NICU nurses at the ready, REACH can now provide life-saving transportation to these tiny babies faster.
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