Patient Monitoring: Efficient Monitoring for Optimal Care
Patient monitoring is an essential element of emergency medical care. EMS field providers and emergency physicians must record and monitor vital signs at all times in order to make tentative diagnoses and act accordingly. Patient monitoring also plays a key role in patient transport, and in the subsequent handover to hospital for treatment. Relevant measurements must be quickly and unambiguously visible at all times, and ideally be retraceable later.
WEINMANN’s MEDUCORE Standard² in combination with MEDUMAT Standard² or MEDUVENT Standard ensures safe, comprehensive patient monitoring thanks to a variety of modes – at the emergency site, during transport, and in the hospital.
What is patient monitoring?
In emergency medicine and intensive care, patient monitoring refers to the recording and monitoring of the patient’s vital signs.
Patient monitoring forms the basis for diagnostics, and for making a tentative diagnosis in an emergency. Different diagnostic parameters are applied depending on the symptoms presented.
A basic distinction is made between invasive and non-invasive patient monitoring.
Invasive patient monitoring
Invasive patient monitoring includes, for example:
- Arterial blood pressure (IBP) measurement
- Central venous pressure (CVP) measurement
- Pulmonary arterial pressure measurement
- Intra-cranial pressure (ICP) measurement
- Ventilation monitoring, anesthesia monitoring
- Blood gas analysis, laboratory analysis of blood and other body fluids
- Temporary and external pacemakers
- Hypothermia equipment
- Intra-aortic balloon pump (IABP)
- Dialysis machines, hemofilters
Non-invasive patient monitoring
Non-invasive patient monitoring is particularly relevant in emergency medicine. Non-invasive patient monitoring includes procedures such as:
- Pulse oximetry
- Non-invasive blood pressure (NIBP) monitoring
- ECG
- EEG, BIS monitoring
- Relaxometry
What is the purpose of patient monitoring?
Patient monitoring is not only important initially, but also for comprehensive handover to the hospital and subsequent continuous monitoring of the patient’s condition.
The following vital signs are usually recorded and monitored as part of patient monitoring:
- Oxygen saturation (SpO₂)
- Heart rate
- Respiratory rate
- 6-lead ECG
- Blood pressure (NIPB)
Other parameters may be additionally monitored. These include:
- Body temperature
- Blood sugar
- 12-lead ECG
- End-tidal CO₂ (etCO₂)
What is the purpose of patient monitoring?
WEINMANN has developed the MEDUCORE Standard² for reliable, user-friendly patient monitoring.
In emergency medical situations, MEDUCORE Standard² takes over patient monitoring at the emergency site as well as during transport, and ensures smooth, comprehensive patient handover to the hospital.
Thanks to its color coding and night view mode featuring inverted colors, MEDUCORE Standard² enables all vital signs to be checked at a glance – in both curve and parameter views – any time, quickly and intuitively, with no disturbing glare.
The monitoring unit allows quick access to the different modes with just one press of a button. The compact, lightweight monitor has a comprehensive, professional alarm system featuring custom setting options.
Basic check at the emergency site
In MEDUCORE Standard²’s monitor mode, users retain a continuous overview of relevant vital signs while on-site. The mode incorporates variable display of the 6-lead ECG with I, II, III, aVR, aVL and aVF leads. The heart rate, pulse rate, oxygen saturation and blood pressure are also indicated.
For advanced emergency diagnostics, the 12-lead ECG can be e-mailed to a clinician, for example, who can assist responders in making a diagnosis and selecting the admitting hospital.
Monitoring during transport
MEDUCORE Standard² enables continuous monitoring of vital signs in the Monitor mode’s parameter view. Users can switch between curve and parameter view with just one press of a button.
Thanks to the comprehensive alarm system featuring warning tones, LED lights and adjustable alarm limits, any changes to the patient’s physiological data, as well as a low battery state on the monitoring unit, are detected promptly, ensuring maximum safety for both patients and users.
Digital patient handover
MEDUCORE Standard² facilitates notification of the admitting hospital including the pre-admission procedure. The 12-lead ECG can be quickly and easily e-mailed to the hospital prior to the patient’s arrival. There is no need for EMS field providers to enter their contact details manually: An address book can be set up on the device, and contacts for refer-backs automatically included with the e-mail.
The replay view means recorded measurements and ECG curves can be retraced later. This may be necessary if the emergency physician is delayed, though it can also be useful when the EMS field providers are handing over the patient to the hospital.
Vital signs at a glance with combination of defibrillation and vantilation
With MEDUCORE Standard² and MEDUMAT Standard² or MEDUVENT Standard from WEINMANN , EMS field providers and medical staff retain a continuous overview of relevant vital signs both at the emergency site and during further treatment in the hospital:
MEDUCORE Standard²
- ECG (6-lead and 12-lead ECG)
- Heart rate, pulse
- Oxygen saturation (SpO₂)
- Automatic NIBP measurement for blood pressure monitoring
MEDUMAT Standard²
- Monitoring of respiratory rate and etCO₂ (including without ventilation during oxygen therapy)
- Ventilation pressure, breath volume and minute volume (only for invasive or non-invasive ventilation)
MEDUVENT Standard
- Ventilation pressure, breath volume and minute volume
