Hospitals, clinics, and other medical facilities typically have a variety of medical carts on hand, each of which has a specific use. There is arguably no type of medical cart that is more vital in emergency rooms and other sensitive environments than the crash cart, or code cart.
What Is a Crash Cart?
A crash cart is a specialized type of medical cart used to transport emergency medications and equipment to the site of serious medical or surgical emergencies. Crash Carts provide all of the tools, equipment, supplies, and medications required to bring comprehensive care to patients’ bedsides when they are suffering from life-threatening conditions. When a patient stops breathing, or someone calls a code when his or her heart stops beating, the first thing the code team will do is bring in a crash cart.
What Goes In a Crash Cart?
What goes in a crash cart varies depending on the facility and the type of patients it serves. Pediatric code carts usually have different items in them that are sized to meet young patients’ needs, for example, while the code carts used in long-term care facilities typically feature items used in geriatric care. What all of them have in common is that they contain tools and equipment used to address serious, life-threatening respiratory and circulatory dysfunction.
Common Configurations
Though every crash cart is a little different, all of them must be carefully organized in a common-sense manner that won’t leave doctors and nurses struggling to find necessary, life-saving tools when a patient is experiencing a health emergency. Below is a list of items that can be found on or in a typical crash cart arranged by their frequency of use. Keep in mind, though, that healthcare facilities often rearrange them as needed to suit their purposes.
Top of the Cart
The top of just about every crash cart features a heart monitor and defibrillator. Some carts may also have airway boxes equipped with intubating supplies, blood glucose meters, full oxygen tanks, removable suction units, and a CPR board.
First Drawer
The top drawer usually contains equipment designed to deal with the cessation of breathing. That may include an airway tray featuring equipment such as masks, nasal devices, endotracheal tubes, blades, syringes, and other essential equipment.
Second Drawer
The second drawer usually contains pre-dripped mixes of the IV medications that are most commonly used when a patient is suffering from a life-threatening condition. These may include adenosine, amiodarone, atropine, dextrose, dopamine, epinephrine, Narcan, calcium chloride, lidocaine, sodium bicarb, and vasopressin.
Third Drawer
The third drawer usually contains IV access supplies. Doctors and nurses will be able to access needles, syringes, catheters, drip lines, adhesive tape, chambers, and clamps to start and maintain IVs.
Fourth Drawer
The fourth drawer contains items such as blood pressure cuffs and suctions. Some facilities also keep flashlights for emergency lighting in this less frequently used drawer.
Fifth Drawer
Finally, the lowest drawer, which will be used the least, usually contains things like central line kits, cricothyrotomy kits, sealed medications, anesthesia bags, and sometimes additional fluids.
Keep Code Carts Well Organized
Some healthcare facilities organize their code carts differently, although the most frequently used and essential items are always found towards the top. Labeling each of the drawers to make it easier to find things quickly is a must, as is providing training to all healthcare workers that may need to use the crash cart.