ICU Ambulance: Intensive care unit on wheels

Critical, Timely and Safety are three buzzwords in any ICU ambulance. Accidents or life threatening situations can happen anywhere and anytime. And in such situations, apart from first responders who can be a passerby or your relatives it all rests on the ICU ambulance to take you up to medical center in time and with utmost care.

Understanding ICU

ICUs or intensive care units are the terms reserved for systems dealing with patients having life-threatening complications. Unlike the basic care units, they usually involve use of more advanced equipment and highly qualified doctors and nurses. Depending on the people that are catered to, they can be neonatal ICU, coronary care unit, pediatric ICU, Trauma ICU, Neuro ICU etc. The ICU provided in ambulance are commonly called as Mobile intensive care units or MICU

ICU ambulance or MICU

These are highly specialized mobile units equipped with paramedics to carry out on-site advanced treatments. They are generally reserved for patients suffering from –

• Respiratory failures,
• Sepsis
• Unstable overdoses
• Diabetic ketoacidosis(DKA) – life threatening diabetic condition
• GI bleeding
• Septic diabetic renal failure
• Combination of multisystem dysfunction

Over the years, governments both at the center and in states have come up with multiple guidelines regarding minimum equipment requirements of an ICU ambulance. For simplification these requirements can be grouped into few categories –

• Basic care facilities – equipment for ventilation, monitoring and administering medication.
• Incident management and transfer specific items – defibrillator, chest tubes, batteries etc.
• ICU ventilator
• Monitors to display ECG, capnography, oxygen saturation etc.
• Syringe pumps, suction device, IV pumps etc.
• Drugs for RSI, vasopressors, sedatives
• GPS enabled van.

Training of personnel

The MICU or ICU ambulance are staffed by highly trained paramedics, doctors and nurses who have been specially trained to deal with emergency and life – threatening situations. Every personnel on the MICU must be qualified enough to care out endotracheal intubation, cricothyrotomy, cardioversion, needle compression etc. in addition to being able to administer critical drugs. In some countries they are also trained to perform insertion of UVCs, UACs, chest tubes, surgical airways etc. In simple words, their level of training is no less than some specialists. 

When time is of essence…

ICU ambulances are sought after in case of critical emergencies as such time is of great value. Not a moment can be wasted. Given the state of ambulance services in India it is no less than a nightmare to book an ICU ambulance. Due to them being scattered and inaccessible, precious time is lost in just carving them out. Thankfully portals like AMB life can prove to be of great help. In case you are wondering what it is, it is an online portal that seeks to build an interconnected network of private ambulance providers around the globe by inviting them to register with them. These services can then be booked by customers based on the choice of their country, state and even cities. Visit them to know more about their services. In times of medical emergency every little help is invaluable.