A mobile intensive care unit based on a standard ambulance trolley bed.
An inexpensive, versatile Mobile Intensive Care Unit is described. By designing the unit around a standard ambulance trolley no running costs are incurred in the maintenance of a purpose-built unit based on an ambulance used purely for this purpose. The equipment is portable and compact and can be transported by any available means, including a taxi, to the referring hospital. Only when the patient is ready for transfer is an ambulance asked for, making the minimum use of emergency ambulance time. It contains all the equipment necessary to monitor and ventilate artificially a critically ill patient during transfer and all the drugs and disposables to treat any emergencies that may arise in this period.
D004867:Equipment Design / Q000191:economics; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units / Q000191:economics; D014187:Transportation of Patients / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*