If you are a medical professional or associate staff, then you should know how important it is to have a highly functional medical crash cart at a healthcare centre. A crash cart can comprise of several medical kits and medicines that play important roles in an emergency. A doctor can save the life of a patient with the kits and medicines available inside a crash cart.
Crash carts come with convenient shapes and sizes besides, a medical assistant can take it everywhere. However, the size and the number of features depend on the demand of the hospital or the buyer. A hospital can customize their crash carts to meet their different requirements. If you are a newcomer in the industry and want to know more about the usability of the crash cart, read the article and become an expert.
Where to Find a Crash Cart in a Hospital
If you are an apprentice or you have recently joined the hospital as a medical staff, you may often find it difficult to find some or the other important equipment. Remember that emergency equipment like the medical crash cart is generally placed at the middle of an area where patients are kept in anaesthetized state.
The point should be near the source of oxygen and suction. If you are in a big hospital with multiple departments, then it should have multiple crash carts for the convenience of doctors and associated staff.
Things to Find in Crash Carts
This is one of the most important parts. A hospital crash cart should comprise of some life-saving medicines and equipment like fluids, catheters, intravenous, defibrillator, etc. A cart should come with all the medicines that can save the life of a patient in an emergency.
Since the crash carts come with multiple drawers, each drawer should have an informative label on it. This will help doctors and medical staff to find important medicines or kits easily. The hospital should train their newly recruited staff and teach how they should use the medical crash cart during any emergency.
How to Organize a Crash Cart?
This tip is going to be helpful if you have not done this before. Here, you must know that you can save someone’s life by providing the patient with a life-saving medicine out of the cart on an emergency basis. Thus, it is important for you to learn the technique of organizing the cart as quickly as possible.
In hospitals, crash carts come with 5-9 drawers. At the top, you can expect to find a pulse oximeter, an electrocardiograph, a blood pressure unit, and a pair of gloves. Now, come to the top drawer. The top drawer of a medical crash cart should comprise umbilical tape, intubation supplies, and some common emergency drugs.
Inside the second drawer, you will find some emergency drugs that can be used on doctors’ consent. The drawer can provide you syringes and needles along with drugs. Drawer number 3 contains catheters and the supplies. In the fourth drawer, you will find fluids and administration sets. The drawer at the bottom (5th) of the medical crash cart can contain some miscellaneous items needed to treat patients with heart problems.
The availability of medicine and medical kits inside the crash cart depends on the proficiency of the hospital staff. Perform maintenance at least once a week. The daily check-up of medicines and kits will also help doctors to provide emergency care with life-saving medicines.
Conclusion
A medical crash cart should come with all the medicines and kits a doctor needs to save the life of a patient in an emergency. A crash cart should act as a mobile hospital and if you are a responsible staff, do not forget to check the status of crash carts on a regular basis.
