M-ICU ambulance: Where to get them in time of emergency?

Where do you go to seek an ICU ambulance service in the time of critical emergency? What has been your experience? Awful I guess. The state of ICU ambulance services or MICU in India is ‘just working’ at the best and ‘largely missing’ at worst. Nothing hurts more than the experience of not being able to find an ambulance in critical situations. The reason for all this mess – aloofness of service providers and inaccessibility of their services. Even if you are able to carve one out, the quality of service leaves much to be desired. So what’s the root of problem? And where’s the solution?

The root of the problem is the marketing model and strategy. Most of the ambulance service providers have a single aim of focusing on more and more people. This forces them to be centered only in areas where population is high. This has at least two shortcomings. One, more ambulance carriers concentrate on a small area and competition gets ruthless and two, remote areas are left almost untouched. While this is an issue for companies, the patients have their own reservations. First, they can’t really make out which one’s the best. Second, though numerous it is still very difficult to find and contact one of the ambulance providers. It takes lot of time. But don’t despair yet. The situation has begun to change. Few newer companies are focusing not on customers but accessibility to customers.

AMB life is one of them. Instead of going after the numbers, they stayed their focus on companies. To improve availability and quality, it envisions an online portal where different private ambulance providers can come and register their main services like air ambulance or ground ambulance or ICU ambulance and ancillary services like hearse van, oxygen systems, etc. It seeks to build an interconnected web of ambulances all over the globe; a one stop to find all services associated with ambulances and medical emergencies. It also allows for an effective feedback mechanism by providing customers with option to review and rate the services so that the inferior ones can be rooted out easily and only the best are available. To improve accessibility, it allows customers to search for ambulances based on their location. Visit them once and see if they are worth the trouble. In case of an emergency, every little help is a bliss.

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.