Specialty Care Transport Unit (SCTU)

Paramedic, Nurse & EMT Training

Hackensack University Medical Center believes that great pre-hospital critical care for our communities begins with high quality education. To provide the highest quality of care to our patients we ensure that every critical care transport Paramedic, Nurse, and EMT receives rigorous and ongoing classroom and clinical education. In addition, each member of our Specialty Care Transport team is certified by the New State Department of Health and Senior Services’ Office of Emergency Medical Services to meet these exacting standards. We believe our commitment to education is reflected in the professional and compassionate care our team provides.

Specialty Care Transport Services

Hackensack University Medical Center Emergency Medical Services operates a Specialty Care Transport Unit (SCTU), which is also licensed as an Advanced Life Support unit and a Basic Life Support unit; responding to both 911 and interfacility requests. In 2015 this team received 1,169 calls for service.

Our SCTU is staffed by critical care nurses, critical care paramedics and EMTs; providing high acuity treatment, including but not limited to Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO), Impella, Intra-Aortic Balloon Pump (IABP), and invasive monitoring, for the most critically ill or injured patients in Bergen County and surrounding communities.

This team plays a vital role in the transfer of patients seen at local hospitals who need complex care at tertiary and quaternary care centers such as HackensackUMC. For example, in 2015 the SCTU and Cardiac Catheterization Lab team succeeded for the first time in meeting the American Heart Association’s challenging benchmark of 120 minutes for door-to-door-to-balloon time for patients experiencing heart attacks and requiring transfer to a cardiac catheterization lab. Following well-defined processes and expedited transfer protocols, our clinicians know that every second counts and have shown that they can get the job done.