Pensacola, Fla.-based Sacred Heart Health System and UF Health ShandsCair, the critical transport system for the University of Florida Health Shands Hospital in Gainesville, partnered to provide ground and air transportation to Sacred Heart patients beginning in October.
Under the partnership, ShandsCair aircrafts will be able to transport Sacred Heart neonatal and pediatric patients in need of more advanced care to UF Health Shands Hospital. Current employees of Sacred Heart's transportation service will also transition to UF Health Shands employees.
Henry Stovall, president of Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola, said the partnership will prove incredibly fruitful because ShandsCair aircrafts can fly between Pensacola and Gainesville without stopping to refuel, a feat Sacred Heart's aircrafts cannot accomplish, according to the report.
Mr. Stovall told the Pensacola News Journal the service will also be available to any facility in the area that needs to transfer a patient.
Pensacola-based The Studer Family Children's Hospital at Sacred Heart has used transportation services in the past to transport nearly 60 critically ill neonatal and pediatric patients to various other health facilities each month. ShandsCair transports roughly 7,200 patients annually.