Children's Hospital of Michigan Expands its PANDA One Critical Care Transport Team to Improve Access for Sick and Injured Children Statewide

The Children’s Hospital of Michigan at the Detroit Medical Center (DMC) has expanded its Pediatric and Neonatal Ambulance service (PANDA One), to include two full time care teams available for transporting sick children from area hospitals to Children’s Hospital for advanced pediatric medical and/or surgical specialty care.  

The PANDA One team is staffed by both registered nurses and respiratory therapists all specially trained in neonatal and pediatric critical care. They work in concert with neonatal and pediatric intensive care and emergency specialists on staff to quickly transport critically-ill or injured children to the Children’s Hospital of Michigan when needed. PANDA One nurses all have special certifications in: advanced cardiovascular life support (ACLS), pediatric advanced life support (PALS), neonatal resuscitation program (NRP) and basic life support (BLS) as well as NCC C-NPT (certification for neonatal and pediatric transport). Community hospitals can request the team anytime day or night, to quickly and safely transport sick and injured children via dedicated ground or air ambulance to the Children’s Hospital of Michigan.

“Many community hospitals treat both adults and children. But very few hospitals across the country and in Michigan do what the Children’s Hospital of Michigan does to provide comprehensive critical care services and specialists just for children,” said Larry Gold, president of the Children’s Hospital of Michigan. “PANDA One is an essential resource for community hospitals statewide when young patients require transport for more extensive treatment and services. We’ve expanded the service to meet the growing demand for the unique services only we provide at Children’s Hospital,” Gold said.

The PANDA One team, which serves as a mobile extension of the Children’s Hospital of Michigan, transports more than 1,200 neonatal and pediatric patients from hospitals throughout the state, surrounding states and Ontario, Canada to its midtown Detroit location annually. 

Just some of the pediatric critical care services that distinguish the Children’s Hospital of Michigan include:

• A dedicated Level 1 Pediatric Trauma Center verified by the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma
• A dedicated Pediatric Burn Center that is one of only 10 in the nation verified by the American Burn Association (ABA) and the Committee on Trauma of the American Colleges of Surgeons (ACS)
• Life-saving extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) therapy for children in respiratory failure
• A 40-bed Level IV Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) which provides the highest level of neonatal care for the sickest and highest risk infants 
• A 38-bed Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) provides the most sophisticated medical and surgical care to critically ill children 
• Pediatric heart, kidney, liver and bone marrow transplant services
• A dedicated pediatric emergency department with pediatric emergency medicine specialists on staff that see nearly 90,000 patient annually    

For more than 125 years the Children’s Hospital of Michigan is the first and most experienced hospital in the state dedicated exclusively to the treatment of children. With more than 40 pediatric medical and surgical specialties and services, the Hospital is a leader internationally in neurology and neurosurgery, cardiology, oncology, and diagnostic services, it is ranked one of America’s best hospitals for children and sees more children than any hospital in the state. More Michigan pediatricians are trained at the Children’s Hospital of Michigan than in any other facility. Children’s Hospital of Michigan is one of eight hospitals operated by the Detroit Medical Center (DMC). The DMC is proud to be the Official Healthcare Services Provider of the Detroit Tigers, Detroit Red Wings and Detroit Pistons.  For  more information, visit www.childrensdmc.org.