Children's Transport Team

Dr. Robert Chambliss’ love of children and his desire to provide comfort to critically ill children motivated him to pursue a career in Intensive Care Medicine.  Of Dr. Chambliss’ many professional endeavors, he was most proud of his involvement in the creation of what was then known as the “Rainbow Response”.  Before 1985, a specialized pediatric transport service did not exist in the Atlanta area.  Infants and children requiring emergent care were transferred by whatever means available, often traveling long hours with minimally trained non-medic ambulances from outlying hospitals across the state of Georgia. Having completed fellowship training in Critical Care Medicine at CHOC and Harbor UCLA where transports were a part of their every day practice, Dr. Chambliss was very aware of the advantages of having ambulatory and air services specially designed with the care of ill children in mind. Physicians at Egleston evaluated the experiences of other children's’ medical centers across the country and concluded that a transport team, specially trained in the area of the care of children could significantly improve the safety and efficacy of the transport of this very special class of patients, children.

Dr. Chambliss took a particular interest in pediatric transport and offered to take on the role of developing a transport system for Egleston. Working with Dr. Jean Wright, Ellen Hanson RN, and Egleston administrators, Dr. Chambliss established Rainbow Response in 1995.  Dr. Chambliss was named the program’s first Medical Director.  In its first year, Children’s Transport Team offered referring facilities a safe, reliable, and well-trained way to transport their neonatal and pediatric patients.  Growth in the number of transports increased remarkably and with this growth, members of the transport team began to present the “Egleston transport experience” at national meetings.  Dr. Chambliss became involved nationally in lecturing to transport professionals at the American Academy of Pediatrics (“AAP”) National Transport Conference, was later elected to the Executive Committee of the AAP Section on Transport, and served as co-director of the AAP National Conference.

When Egleston and Scottish Rite merged as Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (“Children’s”) the transport programs were also combined to become Children’s Transport Team and the growth of the transport service accelerated further.  In 2007, what is now the Children's Transport, transported 4,756 patients by ground, 612 by helicopter, and 64 by fixed-wing plane, for a total of 5,432 patients.