Critical care transfers – a danger foreseen is half avoided
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Correspondence: Philip Haji-Michael critcaredoc@btopenworld.com
Consultant in Critical Care Medicine and Anaesthesia, Christie Hospital, Manchester, UK
Critical Care 2005, 9:343-344 doi:10.1186/cc3773
See related research article http://ccforum.com/content/9/4/R446
Published: 12 July 2005Abstract
How good is the care patients receive during interhospital transfer? The results of a study in this journal make for some disturbing reading. Adverse events occur in about one-third of cases. Half the time this can be related to not following advice from the receiving centre. Of these events, 70% are, in the author's opinion, avoidable and 30% are related to technical problems. So how do we make things better? All transfer equipment needs to be standardized and be "fit-for-purpose". Each hospital needs to take responsibility for the quality of care received in transfer, and this should include guidelines, training and equipment.