1. Impact of Providing a Tape Measure on the Provision of Lung-protective Ventilation
- Author
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Ives Tallman, Crystal M., Harvey, Carrie E., Laurinec, Stephanie L., Melvin, Amanda C., Fecteau, Kimberly A., Cranford, James A., Haas, Nathan L., and Bassin, Benjamin S.
- Subjects
Tidal volume ,ideal body weight ,critical illness ,respiration ,intensive care units ,emergency department - Abstract
Introduction: Emergency department (ED) patients are frequently ventilated with excessively large tidal volumes for predicted body weight based on height, which has been linked to poorer patient outcomes. We hypothesized that supplying tape measures to respiratory therapists (RT) would improve measurement of actual patient height and adherence to a lung-protective ventilation strategy in an ED-intensive care unit (ICU) environment.Methods: On January 14, 2019, as part of a ventilator-associated pneumonia prevention bundle in our ED-based ICU, we began providing RTs with tape measures and created a best practice advisory reminding them to record patient height. We then retrospectively collected data on patient height and tidal volumes before and after the intervention.Results: We evaluated 51,404 tidal volume measurements in 1,826 patients over the 4 year study period; of these patients, 1,579 (86.5%) were pre-intervention and 247 (13.5%) were post-intervention. The intervention was associated with a odds of the patient’s height being measured were 10 times higher post-intervention (25.1% vs 3.2%, P
- Published
- 2021