Neonatal transport: 89 of 100 adverse events appeared on return or after

In a 138-transport Vietnam pilot, 51.4% met the broad unsafe definition and 31.9% met a stricter one. The gap was mild hypothermia, and the study cannot separate transport effects from surgery and illness.

The hot take

These findings should therefore be considered hypothesis-generating.

At one tertiary pediatric NICU in Ho Chi Minh City, researchers prospectively followed 138 intrahospital transport events involving 96 neonates from May to July 2024. The useful signal is not a universal claim that half of neonatal transports are unsafe. It is that the estimated burden moved sharply with the outcome definition, while most recorded events surfaced on the return leg or shortly after NICU readmission.

The broad definition classified 71 of 138 transports as unsafe and generated 100 adverse-event occurrences because one transport could contribute more than one event. Of those 100 occurrences, 11 happened on the outward trip and 89 during the return leg or by 6 hours after readmission. That 89% is a share of recorded adverse events, not a patient-level risk.