Automated BP cuffs

[HF-EMS]

I agree, that is the policy we use in my area. 1st set of vitals manually and then on the lifepack, w/pulseox and NIBP. If vitals are supposed to be taken every 5 min in a moderate to critical patient, and you are all alone, or have only 1 attendant, you cant be tied up taking vitals.

We have to let technology work for us. I cant wait till one device does EVERYTHING, (like those things on Star Trek)

[Ace844]

That was my main point as well. My boss still refuses to allow machine B/P... the old I want to be sure it is accurate. I will tell you after 38 years of siren... 6 years of helicopter I can assure you my hearing is off..

The other point is how many times I see repeat blood pressure actually taken in the rig... every 15 minutes. At least after the first initial auscultated BP, you have a base line. If they use a machine, at least you know it will be done by the print out.

Be safe,

R/R 911

WHAT....Say that again?!?!? HUH??? I can't hear you, you'll have to speak up!!! :!: :arrow: 8) :shock:

ACE

[PRPGfirerescuetech]

That was my main point as well. My boss still refuses to allow machine B/P... the old I want to be sure it is accurate. I will tell you after 38 years of siren... 6 years of helicopter I can assure you my hearing is off..

The other point is how many times I see repeat blood pressure actually taken in the rig... every 15 minutes. At least after the first initial auscultated BP, you have a base line. If they use a machine, at least you know it will be done by the print out.

Be safe,

R/R 911

Something to think about...

[web:25dda17247]http://allheart.com/littmann4000.html[/web:25dda17247]

[Ridryder 911]

HA !....HA!... Actually, the problem is I know that my hearing in my right ear is decreased some, I go about every 2 years to an audiologist to have it checked.. the scary thought is in comparrison to other newbies and medics, my reading's more closer than some others!... This scares me! of the differential .. yes, I am cautious of this. I believe some medics are getting sloppy in auscultating skills or never really learned them to begin with.

Yes, I looked into electronic stethoscopes, not so much for my hearing but I really auscultate and listen to lung sounds, heart tones... and gasp! .. bowel sounds. Although, all I am listening for if they are present or not at the time.

With the number of medics, not just getting older, but staying in the field longer and exposed to noise pollution more, this is something to consider. I know we are meeting next week with our board for hearing protection .. (we want the headset/intercom type) to reduce our exposures...

Be safe..

R/R 911

[emt3225]

I personally dont like using the automatic BP cuff. I think u should first try to get it on your own and if you can't for whatever reason then use the automatic BP cuff...They are not always accurate..

[Nate]

We have a guy who works for another service, but that I see at the ER all the time and is tone deaf, he has his own eletric BP cuff he carries.

[rocket]

Do any of you have any idea how inaccurate the human ear can be? Put 10 people together and they'll almost all tell you a different BP within a few torrs. My point is simply that if human beings can be slightly inaccurate, then why not use a machine that is sometimes slightly inaccurate. What is to say that you're more right than the machine? It's not about laziness, it's about efficiency.

This is especially true in a profession that is exposed to a lifetime of high pitched sirens, road noise and screaming loved ones. After 20 years the machine is probably more accurate. I'm young and I can barely hear a BP on a rough road let alone some of you who've been doing it for the better part of two decades. Some of you were teenagers in the 80's and don't tell me you didn't have Walkmans either...

After all, tell me the difference between a systolic of 176 and 180. Better yet, tell me the difference between 150 and 180. They're both hypertensive. What are you, as a medic, going to do for them? No matter how you look at blood pressures they are based on set standards. The difference between 82 and 80 is a radial pulse (and in my state, the ability to give vasodilators is 90), but how significant that is in terms of treatment given is based entirely on a set standard a group of people have decided upon. When a machine becomes highly inaccurate is when you have a significant problem. Of the machines I've had experience with most have been fairly accurate.

I'm inclined to agree with much of this statement. And I'd like to pitch in the suggestion that not every cuff on the truck is likely to be well-calibrated as well. The rough-and-tumble EMS environment can be just as hard on the cuffs (even the aneroid versions) as it is on the LifePaks and Zolls.

Aneriods are prone to injury and some maintain they are less accurate than their mercury counterparts (but in the interest of safety I'll take an aneriod over a mercury manometer in the field any day :wink: ).

http://www.nda.ox.ac.uk/wfsa/html/u03/u03_018.htm

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.f...p;dopt=Abstract

In my young EMS career I've seen a few manometers with the needles resting well outside of the calibration point.

Personally I don't like to turn down anything that could make for a better patient care experience. If I have the option of a BP reading by two different methods...say once or twice by cuff and another by machine...and I can see all of the numbers are within a few mm Hg of each other then I feel a whole lot better about the numbers I am presenting in the ED. It's even better if one of the manual BPs was obtained by someone else in my crew.

-Trevor