The Quality of transport of adult critically ill patients during inter hospital and intra hospital transfers in a tertiary care facility

Abstract

Introduction: Critically ill patients are in a dynamic and often precarious physiological state. Adverse events are frequently encountered during transfer of them. A prospective audit was conducted to assess the quality of inter and intra hospital transport of critically ill adults in a tertiary care hospital in Sri Lanka. Methodology: All adult critically ill patients transfer in and out to MICU and ETU Teaching Hospital Anuradhapura were studied for a period of three months. A questionnaire based on The Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine (FICM) guidelines utilized as it is the latest guideline available revised in 2019. Results: Out of 60 transfers analysed, serious adverse events such as cardiac and respiratory arrests were encountered. Conclusions: The overall quality of the transfer process was found to be suboptimal, necessitating proper training in defective areas.

Keywords

• transport
• critically ill adults
• inter and intra hospital