Safety issues with an inter-hospital transport of a patient with a Berlin Heart Excor biventircular assist device.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Interhospital transfers of pediatric patients on the Berlin Heart Excor have been published on an occasional basis. METHODS: Nowadays medicine evolves away from just feasibility towards quality and safety issues. Management tools like risk analysis have found their way into clinical practice. RESULTS: Exemplary, we present a case of a 20 months old boy on a Berlin Heart BiVAD Excor who underwent a 224 km ground transport. After a systematic review of the published literature, we describe our safety management with the aim was to provide highest quality of care for the transport. CONCLUSION: Besides a risk analysis, we also describe our training and simulation protocol.