Interhospital Transfer of Acutely Ill Cardiac Patients

Excerpt

Complex issues arise whenever the topic of patient transfer is examined. These include the clinical indications for transfer,^1,2 whether the transfer produced adverse clinical effects,³ and patient stabilization before transfer.⁴ There are also questions about the professional level of the transfer personnel⁵ and, in this era of burgeoning aeromedical services, about the best mode of transport.⁶ In addition, the subject evokes concern over preferential transfer of financially undesirable patients^7-10 and the regionalization of health care resources.^11,12

See also p 1695.

In this issue of THE JOURNAL, Rubenstein et al¹³ present a descriptive study that is useful, even though it sidesteps some of these issues. The article describes 755 acutely ill cardiac patients who were successfully transferred from any of seven Kaiser Permanente medical facilities to a tertiary medical center in Los Angeles. A large majority (96%) of the patients were accompanied only