Crash carts are shelves or drawers with wheels used for transporting and dispensing medications in hospitals. The cart comes handy as support litter for carrying medical supplies of patients needing cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
Life-saving medical equipment and critical care unit drugs are stored in a crash cart trolley. The cart is easy to move, and health care professionals can quickly access all sides of the cart to view and take out drugs and equipment in times of emergencies.
Most emergency rooms of hospitals make use of crash carts to move their pieces of equipment for emergency health interventions like Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS), and Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS).
Uses of Crash cart
- Enhancement of emergency response to patients with critical conditions by the medical team and the provision of swift access to medications and supplies.
- Emergency carts or crash carts in hospitals facilitate arrangement and coordination of equipment used in emergencies.
- Unique facilities like the crash cart to encourage staff acquaintance with equipment
- It works to ensure the availability of well-stocked emergency carts at all times
- It ensures defibrillators are functional and always available
- Valuable time is saved during an emergency.
Crash cart contents
Items contained in a crash cart differ between hospitals, but usually include the necessary drugs and tools useful in treating a person with a cardiac arrest or close to it. They are not limited to this, but some of them include:
- Suction devices, monitors/defibrillator s as well as bag valve masks (BVMs) of various sizes
- Drugs for Advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) such as lidocaine, epinephrine, dopamine atropine, amiodarone, vasopressin and sodium bicarbonate.
- First-line medications used in treating common conditions like dextrose, epinephrine for IM, dextrose, naloxone, midazolam, diazepam, nitroglycerin amongst others
- Medication used in sequence intubation; succinylcholine or, a paralytic and sedatives like midazolam and etomidate, endotracheal tubes and other intubation tools
- Drugs used in the central and peripheral nervous system
- Pediatric drugs, equipment, intubation devices, etc.
- Medicines and equipment the facility might choose.
Risk assessment in managing crash cart
The first point of call is the identification of risk points; dig deep to discover the problems and where they emanated from. These risk points comprise of the following:
1. Staff training and educational needs
- Know those who are responsive and ensure the staff person is appropriately educated and trained.
- Figure out those who check the crash cart and how often they do so, daily, once an hour and the likes, according to the policy or set plans.
- Find out the person that performs checks on emergency equipment.
2. Location of crash carts
- Ensure the cart stays in a particular position for easy access.
- Ensure staff are aware of where emergency equipment is stored and how to place the cart.
3. Components of the crash carts
- Arrange the drugs in a medication drawer so they can be located with names or labels written.
- Separate pediatric medications and clearly label. You can use plastic bags to separate pediatric drugs from other drugs. Label the drawers where the drugs are placed.
- Maintain the references, especially for medications, as well as the proper dosage in case of pediatric emergencies.
- Identify who replaces or restocks drugs and emergency equipment back in the cart.
- Establish a procedure for replacement and restocking of cart contents
- Inform all clinical staff of the process involved in crash cart restocking and/or replacement