Major differences in crash carts for patient transport - a threat to patient safety

Background Transporting critically ill patients between hospitals may be hazardous. Treatment of medical emergencies is paramount, and delivery of drugs during a medical emergency on patient transport may be lifesaving. Currently, there is no standardized crash cart and no guidelines on which drugs physicians should bring when escorting patients. There is increasing evidence that system differences may lead to human and adverse events, which may be fatal. The aim of this study was thus to examine the content and design of crash carts and furthermore, to investigate the knowledge of junior physicians on crash carts.