Re: Who runs your ECMO pumps?

We have specially trained RNs and RTs to run them; mostly RNs. I'm at Children's Memorial Hermann in Houston, TX.

Re: Who runs your ECMO pumps?

Originally Posted by HighCensus

For our team there are two purposes to mobile ECMO:
1) If we receive a referring call for a patient who is too unstable for conventional transport it allows our team to go to the referring hospital, cannulate there, then transport the patient on ECMO back to our facility.

2) In addition we serve as a backup suport system to address medical needs that may exceed the resources of outreach institutions. We are able to support I believe up to six patients at a time on ECMO while many facilities close to us can only support one to two at a time.

Thanks for the great question!

As an aviation person, I've got to know this... do you transport via helicopter or fixed-wing aircraft?

Re: Who runs your ECMO pumps?

Lebonheur Children's Hospital in Memphis, TN has RNs that run ECMO

Re: Who runs your ECMO pumps?

Originally Posted by BabyRN2Be

As an aviation person, I've got to know this... do you transport via helicopter or fixed-wing aircraft?

Our ECLS transport team flies fixed-wing. Our first transport (years ago now) was cobbled together over a holiday weekend; we needed to use a military Hercules for the stretcher and equipment for that one. Now our drivers are more portable and we can use a standard air ambulance, but there's still no way it would all fit into our medevac helos.

Re: Who runs your ECMO pumps?

Hi,
At my hospital the ECMO team is made up from mainly NNICU RN's. Perfusion primes the pump then we take over.
In the NNICU we do baby and pump in peds and adult ICU's we do pump only. I love ECMO it's such an enjoyable challenge.