Why Mechanical Ventilation Improves Patient Safety
Automated Ventilation in the Prehospital Environment
MEDUMAT EasyCPR
Airway management and ventilation are some of the most important, yet challenging situations EMS faces in the pre-hospital setting. And ventilation continues to be one of the most difficult aspects of high-performance CPR. With MEDUMAT EasyCPR, ventilation is consistent and reliable. MEDUMAT EasyCPR can be used with a basic mask, a supraglottic airway or an endotracheal tube, allowing responders to obtain a more consistent ventilation rate and tidal volume as a result of its controlled automatic ventilation.
WEINMANN Emergency LP
5126 South Royal Atlanta Drive, Tucker, GA 30084 USA
770-274-2417 | info@weinmann-emergency.com | www.weinmann-emergency.com/us
Learn More About Mechanical Ventilation During Resuscitation
- Science-based knowledge of leading experts and research
- Why manual ventilation is a difficult task
- Benefits of mechanical ventilation
- Overcoming barriers to mechanical ventilation in EMS
Devices for Emergency Medicine
WEINMANN Emergency has been developing life-saving devices for emergency medicine for more than 45 years. Many of our employees have been or are still involved in the emergency services. This gives our teams a good sense of the needs of users and patients. We are also in constant, close contact with professionals from the emergency medical services, hospitals, and the military medical corps.
The special requirements in the field of non-hospital and in-hospital emergency medicine are at the center of device development. First and foremost, this means that our devices are quick, easy, and intuitive to use. The fact that devices also need to be compact, sturdy, and suitable for outdoor use is a matter of course for our engineers.
WEINMANN essentially offers the complete range of emergency medical technology for emergency service vehicles, emergency helicopters, and airplanes for patient transport. The functions of the devices are perfectly compatible with one another and they can be used with portable systems in almost any combination. The result is portable units that are specially tailored to the respective application.
Devices for Emergency Medicine
WEINMANN Emergency has been developing life-saving devices for emergency medicine for more than 45 years. Many of our employees have been or are still involved in the emergency services. This gives our teams a good sense of the needs of users and patients. We are also in constant, close contact with professionals from the emergency medical services, hospitals, and the military medical corps.
The special requirements in the field of non-hospital and in-hospital emergency medicine are at the center of device development. First and foremost, this means that our devices are quick, easy, and intuitive to use. The fact that devices also need to be compact, sturdy, and suitable for outdoor use is a matter of course for our engineers.
WEINMANN essentially offers the complete range of emergency medical technology for emergency service vehicles, emergency helicopters, and airplanes for patient transport. The functions of the devices are perfectly compatible with one another and they can be used with portable systems in almost any combination. The result is portable units that are specially tailored to the respective application.
Devices for Emergency Medicine
WEINMANN Emergency has been developing life-saving devices for emergency medicine for more than 45 years. Many of our employees have been or are still involved in the emergency services. This gives our teams a good sense of the needs of users and patients. We are also in constant, close contact with professionals from the emergency medical services, hospitals, and the military medical corps.
The special requirements in the field of non-hospital and in-hospital emergency medicine are at the center of device development. First and foremost, this means that our devices are quick, easy, and intuitive to use. The fact that devices also need to be compact, sturdy, and suitable for outdoor use is a matter of course for our engineers.
WEINMANN essentially offers the complete range of emergency medical technology for emergency service vehicles, emergency helicopters, and airplanes for patient transport. The functions of the devices are perfectly compatible with one another and they can be used with portable systems in almost any combination. The result is portable units that are specially tailored to the respective application.
Airway management and ventilation are some of the most important, yet challenging situations EMS faces in the pre-hospital setting. Mechanical ventilation offers an opportunity to provide more consistent care adhering to evidence-based guidelines now and in the future.
WEINMANN Emergency published a white paper that highlights the benefits of mechanical ventilation in EMS.
If you’ve been in EMS more than 10 minutes, you know what happens on a really bad call. During a cardiac arrest call, for example, adrenaline gets dumped in you the minute the tones go off and you race to the scene. While responding, dispatch confirms CPR is in progress. It’s showtime. The diesel engine roars, the siren wails and your heart pumps faster.
On the scene, you confirm the patient has no pulse and is not breathing. Bystanders have been performing chest compressions and you and your partner take over the fight to keep the patient alive. You are now directly responsible for the quality of your patient’s life.
There’s a lot to think about. Chest compressions continue. The cardiac monitor/defibrillator gets hooked up and a line for fluids and meds is established. Don’t forget ventilation – ABC, or CAB, of CPR. You grab the O2 bottle and the bag-valve mask and start getting oxygen into the patient.
We know from experience quality of manual ventilations with a bag varies wildly with hyperventilation at the top of the list of problems.
Providers bag too fast, give too much volume, don’t get a good seal (and sometimes not enough); this exacerbates problems and causes poor outcomes for our patients.
Often, the least-experienced providers are assigned to ventilation while those with advanced levels focus on other tasks. Yet, without a patent airway and adequate ventilation, patients won’t survive.
Statics show patients in prehospital settings are often ventilated at rates as high as 37 breaths per minute, nearly three times the recommended rate of 12 to 15 times per minute.
Gastric inflation, hypoventilation and barotrauma are just a few of the detrimental effects of poor ventilation techniques.
At times, even paramedics struggle with proper ventilation rates and volumes given the lack of tools in the field to measure tidal volume and the chaotic and stressful nature the call.
WEINMANN Medical Technology has published a white paper titled “Automated Ventilation in the Prehospital Environment; Mechanical Ventilation Offers a Safer More Effective Alternative to Manual Ventilation.” It examines the pitfalls of manual ventilations, not only with cardiac patients, but those with traumatic brain injuries and other patients needing assistance to breathe.
WEINMANN’s paper, penned by physicians and clinicians who comprise of the company’s Emergency EMS Medical Advisory Panel, explains away the barriers often presented as deterrents to use automated ventilators in the field. Those include issues of low frequency of use in the field, the weight of the device – some weigh less than two pounds – and the cost, which no more than an auto chest compression device which is gaining popularity with EMS provider.
Patient care benefits from the standards and adherence to guidelines. Decades of research shows wide variance on ventilation persists with negative outcomes to patients, WEINMANN’s paper points out.
Mechanical ventilation solves these variances and provides an opportunity for more consistent care with better outcomes for patients, and a whole lot less stress for the providers.
by Ed Ballam