How Much Does a Crash Cart Cost?

The crash cart is the most vital trolley in every hospital, as every medical facility must have equipment and medications on standby to attend to emergencies. With the hospital crash cart, all emergency kits become mobile to facilitate a quick intervention.

Here, we’ll share details about the crash cart, its content, and its cost. Keep reading, as you’ll also know where to buy the cart in bulk at wholesale rates. 

What Is a Crash Cart?

The crash cart or emergency trolley is a mobile cabinet in the hospital containing various medications, materials, and devices necessary for emergency interventions. For example, if a patient with a cardiac problem or other similar cases is rushed into the hospital, attention must be swift.

So, it won’t be safe for nurses and other healthcare workers to run around to get a defibrillator or to set an IV line. But the crash cart contains these items and other resuscitation aids; all the nurse needs is to push it to where it’s needed.

Other conditions requiring the crash cart include drug misuse, airway blockage, hypoglycemia, and anaphylaxis. These situations require the most rapid intervention because the slightest delay can be dangerous. For this reason, the crash cart is compact and wheeled, thus facilitating the easy transfer of life-saving drugs and materials.

Aside from the hospital, you can also find the emergency trolley in residential, outpatient, and rehab centers. The trolley is usually placed in areas easily accessible to healthcare workers. 

A typical hospital crash cart has a rigid plastic construction with seals on different parts to ensure the content’s quality and integrity. There are various designs on the market, and while the majority are designed for adult care, there are also pediatric emergency trolleys.

Interestingly, the crash cart contents are not arranged anyhow. Medications and surgical materials have designed drawers and positions so that healthcare workers can access them easily without thinking twice. Parts of the crash cart include:

●      Height-adjustable IV pole

●      Drawers

●      Utility container

●      CPR cardiac board

●      Dust basket

●      Oxygen tank support

●      Defibrillator shelf

●      Wheels

●      Centralized lock

●      Seal closure

What Do You Need for a Crash Cart?

The crash cart contains many medicines and tools to alleviate life-threatening situations. While some contents have their designed stand or racks, like the defibrillator oxygen tanks, others, like medications, are arranged in the drawers.

Crash cart items include a suction machine, drugs, a portable defibrillator, airway equipment, a patient monitor, and IV materials.

Defibrillator

Cardiac insufficiency is a common medical emergency. As a result, a defibrillator is critical in a crash cart. It’s an electronic device that delivers an electric shock to restore normal cardiac function. While there are types, the ones usually found on a crash cart are the portable automated external defibrillators (AED). The defibrillator is not placed in the drawers but on a shelf designed for it.

Airway materials

Other common emergencies are those involving the respiratory system. Thus, airway equipment like an oxygen tank, nasal cannulas, oxygen masks, and Magill forceps are necessary. Also, intubation tools fall under this category. Examples include CO₂ detectors, laryngoscopes, tongue depressors, catheters, bite blocks, and flashlights.

Also, while suction pumps, otherwise known as aspirators, are usually wall-mounted in hospital wards, a portable type is necessary for emergencies. You’ll need a smaller suction pump in a crash cart to help doctors clear airways blocked by blood, body fluids, or mucus. The aspirator is battery-powered and suitable for use outside the hospital, and healthcare workers must ensure that extra batteries are always available.

Patient Monitor

Another critical item in the crash cart is a patient monitor. It’s an electronic device usually placed on the crash cart’s top that evaluates cardiac function and blood flow parameters. The results from a patient monitor include oxygen saturation (SpO₂), heart rate, electrocardiogram (ECG), temperature, blood pressure, and respiration rate.

IV tools

Emergencies require intravenous meditation, and thus, items like IV tubes, needles, syringes, tourniquets, alcohol wipes, tapes, and angiocaths are needed. Also, you’ll need IV fluids like dextrose, normal saline, and lactated ringer’s solution.

Medications

Above all, medications are significant emergency trolley contents. Generally, these meds help alleviate anaphylaxis, arrhythmias, and cardiac arrest. A few examples include:

●      Amiodarone

●      Aspirin

●      Epinephrine

●      Beclometasone spray

●      Diazepam

●      Lidocaine

●      Salbutamol in spray

●      Atropine

●      Digoxin

●      Heparin

●      Nitroglycerin spray

●      Aminophylline

●      Ephedrine

●      Calcium chloride

●      Sodium bicarbonate

●      Water for injection

Crash cart arrangement

Ideally, the hospital crash cart contents are arranged for easy and rapid intervention. For example, the oxygen tank should have no place in the drawers because you want immediate oxygen delivery to the patients, so it is better placed in the side rack of the cart for easy access.

Aside from the flat top and other accessories, an ideal emergency trolley should have five drawers. However, items are not randomly placed across these drawers. The top drawer usually contains IV meds for hypovolemic shock and cardiac arrest. In addition, the second houses anticonvulsants, overdose antidotes, and IV meds for airway crises.

In the third drawer are IV tools like tourniquets and angiocaths, while airway equipment like a bite block and endotracheal tubes are in the fourth. The fifth drawer, usually the most spacious, contains bigger crash cart kits, including suction supplies, sutures, ECG electrodes, surgical gloves, masks, and other miscellaneous items.

Why Do You Need a Crash Cart?

A crash cart is more like a portable and mobile emergency department. Therefore, every healthcare facility, including medical outposts and rehab centers, should have this trolley to enable an immediate response to life-threatening situations. Because crash carts are mobile, healthcare workers can take them on-site when called for ambulatory services.

All healthcare workers must organize the crash cart to save a patient’s life. A correctly arranged cart ensures that every vital tool and medication is readily available to respond to emergency calls.

The crash cart contents are detailed in that they serve doctors with all requirements for about 30 minutes into an emergency. Also, while crash carts may differ in style, they contain similar items.

How Many Crash Carts Should a Medical Facility Have?

The number of crash carts can vary depending on the facility’s size and patient volume. But there must be at least one crash cart in the emergency department.

Ideally, once a crash cart is wheeled into an emergency room or ward, another one should be placed on standby and not in the restocking room or areas that are not easily accessible. This is because the slightest delay in emergencies can be fatal.

Most times, delays are due to limited crash carts. Hence, it would be best to invest in multiple crash carts for your facility, and you’re sure to be prepared for sudden calls. Other areas that should have a crash cart on standby include the delivery room, operating theater, and pediatric units.

How Big Is a Crash Cart?

There are no defined dimensions for crash carts. But, generally, most emergency trolleys are over 400 mm in length, width, and height.

How Much Does a Crash Cart Cost?

The crash cart is available in various sizes, models, and prices. Some popular brands in the market include Capsa Solutions, Armstrong Medical, BiHealthcare, AURION, CI Healthcare, Cardinal Scale, Egerton, Merino Healthcare, Detecto Scale, etc.

Generally, you can get a low-end crash cart for less than $300, while the expensive types are over $1000. The price range typically depends on the materials and the ergonomic modifications used by manufacturers. For example, emergency trolleys with six drawers will cost more than those with five.

Some crash cart varieties available on Medwish include:

●      Hospital Emergency Crash Carts Trolley with Cardiac Board AG-ET001A1-850mm $450

●      Hospital ABS Crash Trolley With Five Drawers Central Locking Key AG-P2 $486

●      Emergency Cart TRAN-04 $1200

●      AG-GS002 Medical Durable Emergency Trolley $750

Where to Buy Crash Carts at Wholesale Prices?

Medwish.com is your go-to vendor for various crash cart models. Our primary clients are private laboratories, international agents, and hospitals across continents. The Medwish B2B market also covers the sales and distribution of anesthesia, computer, and linen trolleys, along with other carts, medical furniture, and supplies.

Do you need crash carts for a new medical facility, or do you want to add more, and you find it challenging? Worry no more, as there are varieties on medwish.com, and you can work with the Medwish team to guide your selection.

Also, these crash carts are available at wholesale prices, and one exciting fact about Medwish is that you can pay in bits. Another advantage you enjoy is the various payment options open to you. Examples include Paypal, VISA, American Express, L/C, MasterCard, etc. 

Conclusion

Crash carts were designed to facilitate rapid response to emergencies, especially cardiac and respiratory disorders, within and outside a medical facility. Every hospital should have more than one crash cart to improve operation. Also, all healthcare workers must work together to ensure the crash cart is well organized and easily accessible.

Go to medwish.com today to get your crash carts, medical trolleys, and other medical furniture.