How to Prepare Your Medical Crash Carts for The Best Medical Aid in Emergencies?

Maintaining medical crash carts is not a child’s play, and you have a lot to plan and review when you are buying a crash cart, and filling in supplies in it. This is something about saving a life in threat in an emergency, and therefore the crash cart must be loaded with all the must needed life saving drugs, injections and medical supplies.

• Save

The Normal Contents of a Medical Crash Cart That Are Generally Found in All Hospitals: 

One of the most obvious applications of a crash cart is in a surgical ward and in the heart department, when a patient with cardiac arrest has to be saved in an emergency. Normally a medical crash cart should therefore contain the following:

• A medical monitor
• Suction devices
• Various sized bag valve masks
• A range of cardiac life supporting medicines
• Emergency drugs which are commonly needed in most emergency cases
• Medicines and equipment need when an adult is intubated
• Central venous application drugs
• Peripheral venous application drugs
• Important drugs and equipments needed in emergency pediatric treatments

Review Needed for A Crash Cart

The contents of a crash cart will vary depending on the ward it is used in, the type of hospital etc.

• The crash cart contents in a cardiac ward in a heart specialty hospital will be very different from the contents found in a pediatric ward in a children hospital.
• Again, the contents will vary in case of a general surgery ward, compared to that of a maternity ward. Though a few items will be in common, many of the crucial drugs will vary.
• If the anesthetist and surgeon together review the crash cart contents of the general surgical ward, it will be best. And again, if the pediatrician reviews the contents himself for emergency child care ward it will be apt. for best results there should be a crash cart checklist pasted ready in every medical facility of a clinic and hospital, so that things can be checked with the list.
• And if an item is missing or needs refill or replacement, then it will immediately be detected because of the checklist. The administration of any hospital, therefore, is entrusted with the task of ensuring what will be the contents of a medical crash cart.

Checking the Crash Cart Mobility, Size and Weight

You must check if the crash carts in use in your facility are mobile enough. If the crash cart is loaded with items, and the weight is not balanced then it might topple, so the grip on the wheels and the condition of the cart joints must be checked before you make the cart fully loaded with medicines and equipments.

• Hence you must check the wheels and the proper balancing of equipments in the medical crash cart, so that it’s very agile and mobile.

• A crash cart can be of varying sizes. The drawer sizes and numbers vary, thus making the carts varying in overall dimension and content capacity.

• Depending on the requirement you should choose the cart size. Though the cart must be lightweight enough and easy sized, so that rushing in an emergency with it is easy for the nurse or ward boy, but it must be well spaced to contain all necessary items without compromising.

Though steel, polymer and wood are mostly used in the construction of medical crash carts, there are many variations in their use, with model variations, galvanization and coating variations, wood finishes and paints used etc, thus presenting carts in various finishes, styles, and prices.