Evaluating Intra-hospital Transportation of Emergency Trauma Patients; a Cross-Sectional Study

Trauma patients are the main emergency visitors in need of in-hospital transfer, who are exposed to a wide range of complications. This study was performed to evaluate intra-hospital transportation of trauma patients using a checklist.

This cross-sectional study was performed in AlGhadir Hospital, Abhar, Iran, from 2020 to 2021, on 216 adult trauma patients with triage levels 1, 2 and 3, who needed to be transferred to other wards or required transportation for undergoing diagnostic and therapeutic measures. Evaluations were made before, during, and after the transfer and the results and complications of transportation in these three stages were compared.

In this study, 216 patients with an average age of 18.9 ± 70.3 years were examined. Most of the admitted patients were male (74.1%), with emergency referral (83.3%), and presented following an accident (68.1%). Most transportations were performed for diagnostic purposes (52.3%) and in those with triage level 2 (69.4%). The transfer quality score was calculated to be 93.99% before the transfer, 84.65% during the transfer, and 91.02% after the transfer. Complications were observed in 14.36% of transfers, which included hypotension or hypertension, drop in arterial oxygen pressure, and hypothermia. In addition, most errors had occurred during the transfer and were related to not using monitoring (18.1%), pulse oximetry (17.6%), and not checking peripheral vein line (13.9%). The errors that occurred during the pre-transfer phase included not using pulse oximetry, monitoring, and face mask (1.9%) and those occurring in the post-transfer phase were not controlling Foley and nasogastric catheters (0.5%).

The findings of the study showed that the incidence rate of complications is high, especially during transfer. This can be used in analyzing the causes of errors and planning to increase the safety level of patients. Identification and management of risk factors in the transportation process ensures the safety of patients.