Baby Shuttle Eases Journeys Within the Hospital

A transportable power source designed for incubators and warmers helps newborn babies focus their energy on healing and growing, instead of on managing the stress of exposure to cold temperatures and excessive handling.

The Giraffe Shuttle, combined with a bed, helps reduce the potential for clinical problems that can result from interrupted patient thermoregulation, patient nuisance touch, handling, and movement, all of which may challenge physiological stability when moving babies to and from a transport incubator. Hospital staff can place fragile newborn babies directly into an optimized environment for transport to and from the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), as well as to other departments such as radiology and operating rooms. This helps provide proper thermal regulation without unnecessary delays, up until the newborns are released from the hospital to go home with their families.

Recharging in just two hours, the Giraffe Shuttle provides up to 45 minutes of electrical power. It also can accommodate accessories and auxiliary equipment such as life support monitors, ventilators, and infusion pumps that may be needed during intra-hospital transport. The Giraffe Shuttle is a product of General Electric (GE) Healthcare (Chalfont St. Giles, United Kingdom), and is compatible with the GE Giraffe and Panda families of neonatal beds, incubators, and warmers.

"In their first minutes of life, sick babies are transferred from labor and delivery warmers to transport incubators for the trip to the NICU. Then they're moved into the warmers or incubators that will serve as their homes in the hospital," said Karen Starr, clinical marketing manager and neonatal nurse practitioner at GE Healthcare. "That means disrupting their environment a minimum of two times. For some, this may be just the beginning, as they may be transported to surgery or radiology for various procedures, undergoing additional transfers there and then enduring the reverse process to make the trip back to the NICU."

"Globally, 60% of babies admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit have low body temperature," added Carrie Eglinton Manner, general manager of maternal infant care for GE Healthcare. "Studies show that every one-degree Celsius drop in baby's body temperature increases the likelihood of death by 10%. It's clearly crucial to do everything possible to prevent heat loss."

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