Escalating care
Managing a serious case
- Assess and stabilise the patient, and record the observations.
- Obtain radio-medical advice early and follow the doctor's guidance.
- Prepare for a possible evacuation: the patient's information, the ship's position, and the logistics.
- Continue monitoring and care until the patient is handed over to shore medical services.
- Recognise the conditions that need evacuation and act on them early.
- Prepare the patient and the medical information for a transfer or handover.
- Manage the practical and communications side of a medical evacuation with the coordinating authority.
- Keep caring for and monitoring the patient right up to the handover.
WARNING — Recognise the case that must leave the ship Some conditions — a serious injury, a heart attack, an acute abdomen, a stroke — cannot be treated aboard and need the patient evacuated. Recognising this early, and getting radio-medical advice, is what gets the patient to definitive care in time.
TIP — Prepare the handover information When a patient is evacuated or handed over, the receiving medics need the history, the observations and the treatment given. Preparing that information in advance makes the handover fast and the ongoing care safe.