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
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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.
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.
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.”
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Get in touch with Dräger
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Johannesburg: 2 Ruacana Street, Waterfall Commercial District, (cnr Beatty Street), Buccleuch, 2090
Postal Address: P.O. Box 4676 Rivonia, 2128 Republic of South Africa
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Postal Address: P.O. Box 40554 Redhill 4071
3rd Floor, EY Tower-Canon House, 60 Rangoon Lane, Cantonments City, Accra - Ghana
Postal Address: P.O Box CT 4412, Cantonments, Accra – Ghana.
Digital Address: GL-045-5249
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