Ground Transport

 

The Life Lion Ground Unit (CCTU) was placed in service in May, 2004.  The concept of the ground unit is to provide another means of critical care transport when air-medical services are unable to fly due to inclement weather, or the patient’s condition still requires critical care support but not the rapid transport time provided by the air-medical service.

The staff for the ground CCTU service is the same as the air-medical division.  We work as a nurse, paramedic team, with an EMT driver from Life Lion EMS.  Additional specialized staff from Penn State Hershey Medical Center may accompany us on transports as needed for patient care.   We are primarily assigned to neonatal and pediatric transports but are available for critical adult patients if called upon. We come from a diverse work background and each of us brings something to the team.  The nursing staff comes from a critical care background in the PICU, ICU, ED and pre-hospital care.  The paramedics come from an urban and rural EMS background as well as some with specialized rescue backgrounds.

In the last seven years the CCTU has primarily done transports from hospitals in the surrounding 8 county area of Berks, Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, Fulton, Lebanon, Lancaster and York.  We have however, done transports to New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and other hospitals in Maryland and Delaware.  We have also been utilized at several larger scale critical incidents requiring additional specialized resources.