Introduction: Intrahospital transport (IHT) of critically ill patients has adverse event rates ranging from 4.2%-70%, mostly due to equipment failures (39%-45%) and physiological deterioration such as hypotension and hypoxia. Neurologically critically ill patients frequently need transport to imaging or surgery and face additional risks from hemodynamic instability, hypoxia, hypercapnia and clamping external ventricular drains. While these patients already have transport monitors, the alarms they generate are not systematically analyzed. This pilot study aims to assess whether using the CEIBA eConnect Uno device to capture alarms and continuously monitor patients during IHT can improve safety. Methods: This ongoing prospective IRB-approved observational pilot study was launched in the Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit (NSICU) at Mount Sinai Hospital in April 2025. Adult NSICU patients who require transport monitoring are eligible for the study. Four transport monitors have been fitted with the CEIBA eConnect Uno device, and transport nurses activate the device before transport. Results: Between April 22 and July 27, 31 patients (median age 53, 65% female) underwent 45 transports with Ceiba eConnect UNO monitoring. Diagnoses were brain tumors (12), hemorrhagic stroke (9) ischemic stroke (3), and 7 others. There were 40 transports to CT and MRI split equally; the rest were transfers to other floors or discharges. The median trip length was 22.5 minutes with a median of 4 monitor alarms (median duration 55 seconds). Across all transports, 166 equipment alarms, 61 CNS pressure alarms (e.g. high ICP, high CPP), 48 respiratory alarms, 44 blood gas and pressure alarms, and 20 cardiac alarms were recorded. A mixed model (patient ID as a random effect) predicted alarm count by the following fixed effects: age, sex, trip type, and work shift. Alarm count followed a Poisson distribution with a log link function. No predictors were associated with alarm count together or individually. Conclusions: This study demonstrates the feasibility of using the CEIBA eConnect Uno platform to capture and analyze alarms during IHT. While the study isn’t completed, the results indicate that integrated alarm analysis offers valuable insights into transport dynamics and may inform future workflow improvements for patient safety.
Durbin et al. (Sun,) studied this question.