[Secondary transport of intensive care patients in Switzerland. Results of a survey].

This study addresses the frequency and circumstances of secondary transportation of intensive care patients in Switzerland by evaluation of a questionnaire sent to all recognized intensive care units. Surprisingly many critically ill (roughly speaking two full ICUs with 8 patients) are transferred daily between Swiss hospitals, which amounts to about 6000 transfers per year. Pediatric cases make up 1/4 of the transfers and follow a rather common pattern, since pediatric units prefer to pick up their patients in the primary hospital with their own personnel and also to transfer them later in the same way. For adult patients no common pattern is recognizable except as regards admissions, which are usually performed by the primary hospital's facilities. We suspect a considerable degree of improvisation around secondary transfers of adults. Well trained personnel, suitable ambulances, good communication and a reasonable degree of monitoring are desirable. Non invasive monitoring techniques are considered mandatory or at least helpful by most of the answering units, whereas invasive monitoring was generally judged superfluous. The large number of secondary patient transfers and their only moderately standardized organization patterns make further research desirable.