Intrahospital Transport of Critically Ill Children
Gideon Paret, Ron Ben Abraham, Oshrat Yativ, Amir Vardi, Zohar Barzilay
Dept. of Pediatric Intensive Care and of Anesthesiology, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer and University of Tel Aviv
Prospective evaluation of intrahospittransportation of 33 critically ill children to and from the pediatric intensive care unit was conducted over the course of a month. Factors contributing to risk of transport were assessed.
There were 33 children (25 boys and 8 girls), 3 days to 15 years of age. Reasons for admission included: disease and trauma in 19, and status post operation in 11. The pretransport PRISM score was 4.84. 22 children (66.6%) were being mechanically ventilated and 10 (30.3%) were being treated with amines. Transport time ranged from 8-150 minutes. 15 of the transports (45.4%) were urgent and a special intensive care team escorted 22 (66.6%). Equipment mishaps and physiolog-ical deterioration occured in 12 (36.3%) and 11 (30.3%) of the cases, respectively. The use of amines, mechanical ventilation, longer transport time and high PRISM score were all associated with physiological deterioration on transport.