SmartCare/PS: Shortening The Weaning Process - Dräger Evita Infinity V500 ventilator used for patient on mechanical ventilation

SmartCare/PS: Shortening The Weaning Process

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Improving the weaning process of ventilated patients

When treating a patient with artificial respiration, the usual strategy is to minimise invasiveness and duration of mechanical ventilation to avoid lung damage and further complications. In particular, long-term ventilated patients can get so accustomed to a ventilator that weaning them off it becomes a major task. Every ventilated patient must be weaned, making weaning protocols a good target for automation. Dräger SmartCare®/PS is an integrated automated clinical protocol designed to shorten weaning – improving patient outcome while freeing up valuable time for caregivers.

Dräger SmartCare/PS

Dräger SmartCare/PS helps caregiver effectively wean patients from ventilators

Improving patient outcomes

Dräger SmartCare/PS performs a continuous analysis of the patient’s respiratory mechanics and patterns, actively looking for appropriate situations to challenge the patient to wean from the ventilator. Based on a European Multicenter randomised trial, SmartCare/PS has been shown to reduce weaning times by up to 40% and ventilation times by up to 33%.1 This can help improve patient outcomes and reduce the risk of ventilator associated complications. Using SmartCare/PS has been shown to be as good as having a 1:1 experienced critical care specialty caregiver to patient ratio.2 By shortening ICU stays, SmartCare/PS can also help you reduce the cost of care.

SmartCare/PS is available on Dräger Evita V series

How does SmartCare/PS work?

SmartCare/PS can be used for (long-term ventilated) adult and paediatric patients. Based on the monitored parameters (f,Vt, etCo2), the patient is classified into a condition of normal ventilation, insufficient ventilation, hypoventilation, hyperventilation, unexplained hyperventilation, tachypnea or severe tachypnea.

SmartCare/PS supervises the weaning process and, based on user-defined parameters, either adopts to the patient’s changing clinical requirements, maintains current support, or continues to observe and suggest separation. When the “Consider Separation” notice appears, the clinician must evaluate the patient and consider the appropriate course of action (for example, extubation or continued mechanical ventilation). 

SmartCare/PS is available on Dräger Evita V series.

A look at how SmartCare/PS is designed to accelerate weaning off the ventilator

SmartCare/PS: the automated weaning protocol

SmartCare/PS is designed to accelerate weaning off the ventilator and frees up time for other tasks with the help of an integrated automated clinical protocol. See how it can reduce the length of ICU stay, decrease ventilation time and lead to earlier patient mobilisation by helping to re-train the respiratory muscles to work efficiently on their own.

“The real problem is that clinicians and nursing staff need to take an adequate amount of time to ensure that they do not miss an opportunity to advance the weaning stage. This often proves difficult as the focus is frequently on the provision of acute medical care for patients.”

Prof. Phillipe Jolliet – CHUV, Lausanne

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Dräger South Africa (Pty) Ltd.

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+27(0)31 812 7914

Postal Address: P.O. Box 40554, Redhill 4071

Sources

1 Lellouche F, Mancebo J, Jolliet P, Roeseler J, Schortgen F et al. 'A Multicenter Randomized Trial of Computer-driven Protocolized Weaning from Mechanical Ventilation' Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2006, Vol 174(8). pp 894-900, 2006. Originally Published in Press as DOI 10.1164/rccm.200511-1780OC on July 13, 2006 Internet address: www.atsjournals.org
 

2 Rose, L, Schultz, MJ, Cardwell, C, Jouvet, P, McAuley, DF & Blackwood, B 2013, 'Automated versus non-automated weaning for reducing the duration of mechanical ventilation for critically ill adults and children (Review)', Cochrane database of systematic reviews (Online), no. 7, CD009235. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD009235.pub2|http://example.com