Did you know respiratory rate is one of the two most reliable early indicators for detecting deterioration in low-acuity patients?1
And that manual methods of assessing and documenting respiratory rate are not a dependable measurement for predicting potential complications?
Yet, manual measurement remains the most common way of capturing respiratory rate as vital sign in non-critical areas of care today. Despite manual collection making accurate and consistent respiratory rate reporting a challenge.
Considering the importance of reliable respiratory rate monitoring and the difficulties care providers face when it comes to manually collecting respiratory rate, clinicians need a standardized approach for measuring and recording this important vital sign.
Capturing an early indication of respiratory rate increases may help clinicians predict adverse events in hospital wards. Among isolated vital signs, maximum respiratory rate is the most accurate predictor of in-hospital cardiac arrest.2
But manual respiratory collection practices complicate detecting abnormal respiratory rates early enough:
- Spot checking respiratory rate values at certain time intervals throughout the day only captures a momentary snapshot of a patient’s condition. 3,4
- Manually measuring respiratory rate is time-consuming and overwhelming.5
- Respiratory rate is the most infrequently recorded vital sign, documented five times less frequently than blood pressure.6
- There is a greater risk for human error with subjective capture of vital signs.3,4
- Manually recorded respiratory rate may be inaccurately recorded with bias toward normal respiratory rate.7,8
Prioritizing respiratory monitoring as a vital sign for early detection of patient deterioration begins with accurate assessment and consistent documentation. Respiratory rate monitoring tools can streamline the collection and transmission of respiratory rate measurements.
Using medical-grade wearable devices like the BioButton®* multi-parameter wearable† help provide continuous monitoring. Among other FDA-cleared parameters and biometrics, it includes automated monitoring of resting respiratory rate, which captures more accurate data than manual respiratory rate collection. The BioButton®* can also provide trends of respiration rate over time.
Capnography promotes continuous monitoring of respiratory rate, too, by turning a subjective value into an objective one.
The key advantage of capturing respiratory rate with capnography monitoring devices like Microstream™ is that it measures ventilation directly at the airway. Ventilation is the process of inhalation of oxygen from the atmosphere into the lungs, gas exchange at the alveoli, resulting in carbon dioxide (CO2) gas, then expelled during exhalation.
Continuous monitoring of CO2-derived respiratory rate and etCO2 play an important role in helping detect life-threatening conditions.9 Capnography continuously delivers both values accurately and objectively.10-13
With Microstream™ capnography plus Nellcor™ pulse oximetry rolled into the RespArray™ patient monitor, clinicians have a continuous way to monitor changes in respiratory status on the medical-surgical floor — to help detect respiratory compromise in its early stages.14,15
† BioButton® is not intended for critical care monitoring.
Patient monitoring technologies should not be used as the sole basis for diagnosis or therapy and are intended only as adjuncts to patient assessment.
Sources are available here.
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