The patient monitoring devices support the noninvasive and continuous measurement of patients with real-time data. It enables doctors and nurses to get the patients' physiological state timely and conveniently for diagnosis, treatment, and rescue for critical patients. With the continuous growth of medical demand, it has become one of the most common medical equipment. The risk caused by the damaged devices increases, which makes the management of the device important.
The failure of pulse SpO2 detection is one of the most common things in the clinical. In most cases, they are because of the damage of the spo2 sensors. Unreasonable operation and management will increase the frequency of probe failures, which leads to a decrease in spo2 probe life and performance and an increase in the risk during use. In this article, we analyze the risks and severity of the spo2 sensor in use.
Types of risks during the use of spo2 sensor
(1) Physical risk. Because the long-term monitoring with the same tissue, especially for newborns or patients with perfusion disorders and skin morphology in a changed or immature state, may lead to sensitivity, redness, blistering or compressive necrosis of the tested part.
(2) Clinical risk. The improper operation or error operation would cause the spo2 misreading. It contains improper sensor installation, unfit sensor size, and more.
(3) Technical risks. This problem is mainly because of the measurement errors or performance degradation, such as the performance degradation of LED for signal detection or measurement errors caused by interference.
(4) Other risks, such as the risks caused by deviations of equipment, would cause the delay in measurement data and put the patient in a risky environment.
The severity of these risk
Long-term wearing the spo2 sensor on the same tissue would cause skin damage. The spo2 misreading would cause a delayed treatment or even cause the patient condition to get worse.
Related article - The factors that influence spo2
With the analysis of the 72 pieces sensor failure with more than 303 monitors in the hospital, one in five sensors has the problem during in use. About 93% of them can be discovered with routine inspections, and the remaining 6.94% of the malfunctions are more complicated and not easily detected during checking. The harm caused by these problems is also relatively severe, and it is necessary to pay attention to this kind of failure and carefully investigate it.
Most of the problems have a close relationship with improper operation. And one in three of the spo2 sensor problems are directly related to human factors, such as blending, squeezing, and pulling.
The performance of light-emitting diodes, photoelectric sensors, and spo2 cables, and the welding process in the manufacturing process will also affect the service life of the pulse SpO2 probe.
27.78% of the faulty probes had blood, body fluids, and liquid medicines remaining, which would affect the performance and life of the SpO2 sensor and increase the risk of infection. Therefore, it is important to choose the appropriate tissue for measurement according to the patients' condition and do daily cleaning and disinfection work.
How to deal with the risk in the use
(1) Inspect for the exterior, performance before use, and replace the problematic probe promptly. Make judgments on the suitability and safety of the device for the intended use. Have a prospection judgment for critical and severe patients.
(2) Inspection during use. Be sure the sensor is in a suitable position and no interference in monitoring the surrounding. Have a check for the spo2 sensor whether the sensor is bent or twisted or if the patient has adverse reactions, etc. We have to deal with the devices with malfunctions calmly and eliminate them in time. The equipment should be cleaned and disinfected in time after use.
(3) Regularly check the usage records according to the frequency of equipment usage.
Have an overall evaluation of the equipment status and the operation status. For these improper operations, which may cause risks, there would be a warning or operation instruction to enable safe and reliable operation in clinical workflows.
(4) The medical device adverse events that have occurred should be reported in time to avoid or reduce similar adverse events at different times and places.
Conclusion
The patient monitors are widely used in different departments with numerous brands and models in various connectors. All the brands have customized standards and algorithms. Sometimes, even models from the same brand have different algorithms, which lead to the unsubstituted to each other. All these bring inconvenience of the inspection and management on spo2 sensors. To ensure the safety and effectiveness in use, the staff should have comprehensive checking in the daily inspection and maintenance of medical equipment.
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