Improving Situational Awareness During Interfacility Transport Using a Transport Monitoring and Communication...

Area of Science:

• Neonatal critical care
• Medical transport logistics
• Health informatics

Background:

• Interfacility neonatal transports require clear communication and high situational awareness.
• Current communication methods, like phone calls, may be suboptimal for complex neonatal cases.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare a simulated teletransport application (T-MAC) with standard phone calls for neonatal interfacility transports.
• To evaluate the impact on situational awareness and communication efficiency.

Main Methods:

• Pilot study involving medical control physicians (MCPs) and pediatric critical care transport teams (PCCTs).
• Simulated neonatal transports were conducted with and without the T-MAC application.
• Situational awareness (perception, comprehension, projection) and communication duration were measured.

Main Results:

• The T-MAC app significantly improved MCPs' perception and projection scores, both before and after patient events.
• PCCTs also showed improved perception and projection scores with the T-MAC app.
• Communication duration for adverse events was shorter with the T-MAC app.

Conclusions:

• The T-MAC application enhanced situational awareness and communication efficiency in simulated neonatal transports.
• MCPs demonstrated a greater improvement in situational awareness compared to PCCTs.
• Further investigation into T-MAC application development and use is warranted.