[Transfer of critically ill patients between hospitals - fundamentals and requirements].

Due to the increasingly changed clinical landscape, which leads to a reduction of clinical facilities in rural regions. This also leads to a centralized clinical care, in addition to limited care options in the periphery. Therefore the interhospital transfer is becoming increasingly important. Specialized centers have become more and more important through this centralization of clinical care. Not only the number of transports, but also the transport distances have steadily increased in recent years. It is necessary to differentiate centripetal transports into the centers of the maximum and centrifugal transports back to peripheral clinics, weaning devices or rehabilitation facilities. Especially in the case of the latter, the number of patients still to be transported under intensive medical conditions has clearly increased. © Georg Thieme Verlag Stuttgart · New York.