Before organizing a neonatal transport system, there needs to be planning and coordination at the national and regional levels to align transport goals and objectives with those of the health system as a whole.
The planning process includes:
• Alignment of the objectives aimed to improve health system outcomes and transportation priority cases (and cases excluded).
• Estimation of the demand for care for each health problem selected and per region (met and unmet needs).
• Installation of primary care and referral centers to meet the demand for care (population-based distribution).
• Estimating transportation demand to provide equitable access to care (based on the distribution of the population).
• Establishment of referral networks for each health problem selected and for each region (depending on subspecialties available).
• Determination of the administrative and governance model of the transportation system (state or private, independent organization or organization under the hospital system).
• Definition of the operative plan and flow of economic revenues (in line with health insurance schemes, financial responsibility of referring hospitals and receiving hospitals, existing provisions for patients with no health insurance or with conditions not covered)
