Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety is a national advocacy force for addressing patient health and safety priorities that are shared by patients, physicians, regulators, and industry. We are an accredited provider of continuing medical education.
“Monitoring only SPO2 does not assess adequacy of oxygenation, especially in patients receiving oxygen post op. Also, check q 2.5 hours allow too long a time for hypoxic brain damage to occur…continuous monitoring of ETCO2 and respiratory rate must be added.”
“One action that VHA has taken to address this high error incident rate is to use a PCA pump that has an integrated end tidal CO2 monitor or capnograph. A capnograph measures in real-time the adequacy of ventilation. Using this technology could prevent more than 60 percent of adverse events related to PCA pumps.
“In addition, we developed a standard protocol that looks at the other key issues that need to be addressed for safe use of PCA pumps: human factors (communication, training, fatigue and scheduling); the environment and equipment, rules, policies and procedures, and barriers and controls.”