Transportation of sick neonates, 1972: an unsatisfactory aspect of medical care.
An analysis of personnel and facilities used for transfer of sick newborn infants to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto during the months November 1971 and February to April 1972 showed many deficiencies. In many instances severely ill patients were accompanied by inadequately trained staff, transport incubators were either inadequate to maintain the babies' temperatures or were used inappropriately, resuscitation facilities were not available and oxygen concentrations could neither be measured nor varied as desired.Infants who weighed less than 1500 g. at birth and who died following transfer had significantly lower mean body temperatures on arrival at the referral hospital than those who survived. Mean transport incubator temperatures were too low in all groups of infants but were lower in those who died, although the difference was not statistically significant.
D000367:Age Factors; D000552:Ambulances; D001724:Birth Weight; D001831:Body Temperature; D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000097:blood; D006801:Humans; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D007186:Incubators, Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007232:Infant, Newborn, Diseases / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy*; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D009864:Ontario; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013997:Time Factors; D014187:Transportation of Patients; D014469:Umbilical Arteries
D002245:Carbon Dioxide; D010100:Oxygen