title: [Establishment of regional active neonatal transport network].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the clinical function and significance of establishing a regional active neonatal transport network (ANTN) in Beijing.
  
  
  METHODS
  The authors retrospectively studied intensive care and the role of ANTN system in management of critically ill neonates and compared the outcome of newborn infants transported to our NICU before and after we established standardized NICU and ANTN system (phase 1: July 2004 to June 2006 vs phase 2: July 2006 to May 2008).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The number of neonatal transport significantly increased from 587 during phase 1 to 2797 during phase 2. Success rate of transport and the total cure rate in phase 2 were 97.85% and 91.99% respectively, which were significantly higher than those in phase 1 (94.36% and 88.69%, respectively, P < 0.01). The neonatal mortality significantly decreased in phase 2 compared with that in phase 1 (2.29% vs 4.31%, P < 0.01). The capacity of our NICU was enlarged following the development of ANTN. There are 200 beds for level 3 infants in phase 2, but there were only 20 beds in phase 1. Significantly less patients in the phase 2 had hypothermia, acidosis and the blood glucose instability than those in phase 1 (P < 0.01, 0.05, 0.01 and 0.05, respectively). The proportion of preterm infants transported to our NICU were higher in phase 2 compared with that in phase 1, especially infants whose gestational age was below 32 weeks. The proportions of asphyxia and respiratory distress syndrome were lower in phase 2 than that in phase 1, but the total cure rates of these two diseases had no significant changes between the two phases. The most important finding was that the improvement of outcome of premature infants and those with asphyxia and aspiration syndrome was noted following the development of ANTN.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Establishing regional ANTN for a tertiary hospital is very important to elevate the total level in management of critically ill newborn infants. It plays a very important role in reducing mortality and improving total outcomes of newborn infants. There are still some problems remained to solve after four years practice in order to optimize the ANTN to meet needs of the development of neonatology.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Bayi Children's Hospital Affiliated to the Beijing Military Command General Hospital, People's Liberation Army, Beijing 100700, China.
authors.forename: Xiang-yong
authors.initials: XY
authors.lastname: Kong
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Xiao-juan
authors.initials: XJ
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.forename: Xiao-yang
authors.initials: XY
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.forename: Huan-sheng
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.forename: Zi-zhen
authors.initials: ZZ
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Ai-hua
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Fen-ping
authors.initials: FP
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Zhi-chun
authors.initials: ZC
authors.lastname: Feng
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007226:Infant Mortality; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature; D007363:Intensive Care Units, Neonatal / Q000592:standards; D014187:Transportation of Patients / Q000592:standards