What is on your LTC crash cart?

Specialties Geriatric

Published

We have a suction pump and tubing, an ambu bag, a CPR board, an 02 cylinder, a couple of oral airways and IV set ups with no bags of fluid in sight. Thats it, no defibrillator, no ACLS drugs, or much of anything else. I was wondering if anyone had anything else on their carts? After the full code I worked this weekend I realize that in the future the county ambulance service may not always be able to get there quickly due to staffing and other runs during which time the few minutes in which defibrillation and CPR have a decent survival rate are long gone. I am going to recommend upgrading the current cart to the administrator as soon as I have a good idea where we are lacking. As far as vital sign measuring devices we have a small pulse oximeter on each unit blood pressure cuff and stethoscope. I have been dreaming of a vital signs monitor for ever if only on the crash cart.

Specializes in ER/PDN.

IN BLS, they teach us AED's. I don't understand why your facilities don't have them. Are there grants for LTC's for these?

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Yep...that's pretty much what we have on ours too....and what has been on every other cart in every other LTC facility I have worked in since 1996.

Doesn't really help much...

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CapeCodMermaid,

This is a small small town. The county ambulance service is the only means of transport out of our facility. Everynow and then we get a resident back from the big city using a private company ambulance. With the medicaid, medicare, and insurance payments the county service barely makes ends meet at the end of the fiscal year our EMT's are only making about $7.50 an hour and there just isn't much money for raises especially with the ALS services that they have been offering for two years this September.

I would love to have a vital signs moniter and an AED but I just don't think this will be happening anytime soon. We just got IV pumps this winter.

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:confused: Crash Cart?

Don't have one. We have a room with both a portable O2 and suction machine set up with tubing, an ambu bag, and a CPR board. We dial 911 for a code and provide BLS. I agree that a defibrillator would be great. How many residents do you have that are full code?

I've only had 1 patient code in the 10 years I've been in LTC. CPR really does work! :)

"The Journey Is The Reward"

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We probably have 20-30 out of about 100 residents that are full codes. Maybe more maybe less. Of course when the full codes get closer to the end the social workers and nurses discuss with the families what a full code and DNR mean and usually they can get the families to sign a DNR. Then again sometimes the families want everything done and we do full codes.

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Out of 28 patients we have 6 full codes. One is extremely sick..and I swear everytime I walk in that room I wonder what I will find. Our cart is much as described, suction, O2, cpr board, ambu-bag. 911 is very quick here, (thankfully)

But we do use our local transport very frequently, for basically everything but codes.

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