About

ShandsCair's 35th anniversary fleet at the Gainesville Regional Airport

Saving time in an emergency situation is often the difference between life and death. For some of the thousands of patients referred to University of Florida Health, intensive care given at outside hospitals and en route by the UF Health ShandsCair Critical Care Transport Team makes the difference.

For the ShandsCair Critical Care Transport Team, the combination of intensive care and rapid transportation has helped link referring physicians to tertiary care being rendered in the emergency department and intensive care units at UF Health Shands Hospital.

ShandsCair is the critical care transport system of UF Health. The ShandsCair team strives to deliver excellence in patient care during transport, using specialized teams, vehicles and equipment in a safe, cost-effective manner with the goal of improving patient outcomes. ShandsCair provides transport and specialized care by way of a large fleet including fixed-wing aircrafts, helicopters, ground ambulances, and medical transport vans. The ShandsCair helicopter typically transports patients from prehospital scenes within a 75-mile radius, and community hospital emergency departments and intensive care units up to a 240-mile radius, including domestic and international access. Care is provided 24 hours a day, seven days a week and is coordinated through the ShandsCair Communication Center by the program’s Communication/Transportation Specialists.

ShandsCair transports over 11,000 patients per year.

Our Patient Populations

ShandsCair consists of two distinct clinical teams: the neonatal/pediatric team and the adult/pediatric team. The neonatal/pediatric team transports infants and children up to 5 years old. This team is composed of a neonatal registered nurse or APRN and a registered respiratory therapist. The primary diagnosis of patients transported by this team includes infants born prematurely with respiratory or cardiac compromise, and other medical or surgical anomalies. The adult/pediatric team is composed of a registered nurse/paramedic or APRN/paramedic and a critical care paramedic. This team transports scene patients of all ages and interfacility patients greater than 30 days through the geriatric population. The primary diagnosis of patients transported by this team consist of multi-trauma, neurosurgical emergencies, surgical emergencies and medical emergencies. Average flight time is one hour.

Transport and Procedure Capabilities:

  • Arterial line placement
  • Umbilical arterial catheter and umbilical vein catheter placement
  • Point-of-care testing
  • Complex cardiac transport
  • Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or ECMO, for all patient populations
  • High-risk obstetrics team
  • Isolette transport
  • Intraosseous needle placement
  • Neonatal and pediatric specialty teams
  • Nitric and complex ventilation
  • On-board ultrasound
  • Balloon pump, ventricular assist device and Impella device monitoring (transport team supplied consoles)
  • Blood administration
  • Chest tube placement and monitoring
  • Central venous line placement and monitoring
  • Early goal-direct SEPSIS therapy, including antibiotics for all patient populations
  • Extensive pharmacology formulary
  • Intracranial pressure monitoring
  • Intubation, rapid sequence intubation, surgical airway and McGRATH video laryngoscopes
  • Invasive cardiac pacing
  • Pericardiocentesis

Rotor wing services are provided by Med-Trans Corporation

Fixed wing aviation services provided by University Air and Jet ICU