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On July 4, 2003, following a year-long fight
with colon cancer, Dr. Chambliss passed away. Although he did not live to
see this critical phase of the Pediatric Transport service come to fruition,
he would be proud to know that his initial involvement in the
development of a transport service at Egleston somehow paved the way for an
even more expeditious and efficient mode of transit for many emergent and
critically ill children via Children’s Transport Team. 
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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.