Adverse events during intrahospital transport of critically ill patients in a large hospital.

OBJECTIVE

To describe the incidence of clinical and non-clinical events during intrahospital transport of critically ill patients and to analyze the associated risk factors.

METHODS

Cohort study with retrospective data collected from October 2016 to October 2017. All cases of intrahospital transport for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes in a large hospital with six adult intensive care units were analyzed, and the adverse events and related risk factors were evaluated.

RESULTS

During the study period, 1,559 intrahospital transports were performed with 1,348 patients, with a mean age of 66 ± 17 years and a mean transport time of 43 ± 34 minutes. During transport, 19.8% of the patients were using vasoactive drugs; 13.7% were under sedation; and 10.6% were under mechanical ventilation. Clinical events occurred in 117 transports (7.5%), and non-clinical events occurred in 125 (8.0%) transports. Communication failures were prevalent; however, the multivariate analysis showed that the use of sedatives, noradrenaline and nitroprusside and a transport time greater than 36.5 minutes were associated with adverse clinical events. The use of dobutamine and a transport time greater than 36.5 minutes were associated with non-clinical events. At the end of transport, 98.1% of the patients presented unchanged clinical conditions compared with baseline.

CONCLUSION

Intrahospital transport is related to a high incidence of adverse events, and transport time and the use of sedatives and vasoactive drugs were related to these events.