Handbook of Patient Transportation

Over the past three decades, there has been growing concern over the management of victims of trauma and of medical emergencies, not least in the standard of prehospital care which they receive. In the 21st century, there is an increasing requirement to transfer patients, by road and by air, to and from specialist centres of excellence or within hospitals from department to department as modern medicine dictates that the patient requires intra-hospital movement to an imaging scanner, to the operating theatre, and then perhaps to intensive care. This book is a practically based text in which the reader will find easy-to-digest details on clinical management and on the logistics of different transport modes as well as facts about the physics and physiology of patient movement. It is intended as a basic reference for those who seek to work in transportation medicine, primarily doctors, but it will prove of great relevance and interest to nurses, paramedics and those who administer ambulance and air ambulance organisations. There is an increasing requirement to transfer patients, by road and by air, to and from specialist centres of excellence or within hospitals or intra-hospital. This book is a practically based text where the reader will find easy-to-digest details on clinical management and on the logistics of different transport modes. Until the early 20th century, ambulance vehicle development was led by the need for the removal of injured soldiers from battlefields, whereas in the past 50 years the increasing requirement to transfer patients is more dependent on the evolution of modern medical technology and on the economics of health care delivery. In the 21st century there is an increasing requirement to transfer victims of trauma and medical emergencies between hospitals for specialist treatment. This work analyses the pre-hospital care and management of such patients