Adverse events during intra-hospital transport of critically ill patients: an observational study

Aim: This study aimed to describe adverse events occurring during intra-hospital transportation of adult patients from the emergency room to the intensive care unit and to analyze the associated risk factors. Design: This study uses a quantitative analytical observational design. Methods: In total, 151 critically ill patients out of 159 with indicated intra-hospital transportation participated in the study. Patients were transported from the emergency room to the intensive care unit in a class A general hospital in Central Java, Indonesia. The statistical analysis included descriptions of demographic, medication, monitoring, equipment, and clinical characteristics of the cohort, and identified risk factors for adverse events during transportation by univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. Results: The overall incidence of adverse events was 78.8%. Risk factors were: transport team, hemodynamic monitoring, equipment preparation, and patient’s condition, and were associated with adverse events (p < 0.05). Multivariate analysis showed that equipment preparation was the factor most contributing to adverse events with Exp(B) = 22.6. Conclusion: This study showed that the incidence of adverse events during transportation of critically ill patients was high. We recommend that transports be performed by fully equipped teams of medical professionals. Monitoring of intra-hospital transportation-related events is also recommended to reduce frequency of adverse events.