Outcomes From Long-Distance Interfacility Transport of Adult Patients on Acute Mechanical Circulatory Support

Cardiac and respiratory failure in adults has historically had very high mortality. Mechanical circulatory support (MCS) has shown promise to improve outcomes for these patients; however, only tertiary care centers typically have the critical care resources to manage patients on MCS. We investigated to see if we could provide safe, long-distance transport of MCS-supported patients to our tertiary center after MCS is initiated at community or regional hospitals. We also investigated if we could provide this service without using physicians or perfusionists for the en route management of MCS devices. Our outcome results, based on survival to discharge, are comparable with other published survival outcomes data for this patient population, suggesting that patients on MCS devices can be safely transported by air and ground without incurring additional mortality risk. Additionally, instead of perfusionists or physicians, specially trained nurses were used to manage all MCS devices en route. This change to the typical transport team structure has the potential to make the transport of MCS-supported patients more cost-effective for health care systems nationwide.