The Children’s Acute Transport Service (CATS) in the UK performed 2106 interfacility transports between April 2006 and March 2008. The stabilisation time averaged just over 2 hrs. Stabilisation time was prolonged by the number of major interventions required to stabilise the patient before transfer and differed significantly between various diagnostic groups. The length of time spent by the retrieval team outside the intensive care environment had no independent effect on subsequent patient mortality.

They have shown that stabilisation time can be influenced by a number of patient- and transport team-related factors, and that time spent undertaking intensive care interventions early in the course of patient illness at the referring hospital does not increase patient mortality. In the authors’ words: ‘the “scoop and run” model can be safely abandoned in favor of early goal-directed management during interhospital transport for intensive care.‘
There’s NO rush guys!
Effect of patient- and team-related factors on stabilization time during pediatric intensive care transport
Pediatr Crit Care Med. 2010 May 6