Blogs

ETCO2 Monitoring

By Kenneth Goss posted 07-28-2010 07:49

  

I am a manager at a small community hospital in PA. We currently place all patients who have a PCA pump on ETCO2 monitoring. To be honest with you I do not see the value in this procedure for no one is truley monitoring the device. What are your findings.

Ken

1 comment
36 views

Related Content

Permalink

Comments

Pamela Pohlenz
12-30-2010 09:46

We are a 250 bed hospital & have been using ETCO2 monitoring for over a year now. We started with it just on our post-op OSA patients; but started in June to use it on our PCA patients. We don't put it on all our PCA patients; we have a criteria that they have to meet just one of them. Then they get are placed on one. We monitor them every 4 hours, with the nurse doing there regular rounds also & also have the machine plugged into the call light system; so if it alarms the nurse is aware of it. I have found them to be a good tool for regulating pain meds & the patient's alertness.
Pam Pohlenz, BS, RRT
St. Francis Medical Center
Grand Island, NE