By Michael Wong, JD (Executive Director, Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety)
Being able to easily assess a patient’s condition via a single, multi-parameter indicator would help clinicians determine whether changes in treatment are needed. The desire for such an indicator was confirmed in two surveys conducted by the Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety (PPAHS) conducted in 2013 and again in 2015.
In PPAHS 2013 First National Survey of Patient-Controlled Analgesia Practices, 7 out of 10 hospitals indicated they would like “a single indicator that accurately incorporates key vital signs, such as pulse rate, SpO2, respiratory rate, and etCO2.” Respondents to this survey consisted of a mix of clinicians—18% physicians, 35% non-physicians (such as RTs and RNs), and 47% pharmacists.
A similar desire for a multi-parameter indicator was also found in a 2015 survey of nurses from the American Hospital Association. In this nursing survey, it was found that 67% of respondents said that they would like a single monitor multi-parameter device that measures all current physiological monitoring parameters. Continue reading “A New Tool to Predict Respiratory Failure: An Interview with Hiroshi Morimatsu, MD, Ph.D”