A recent time and motion study by University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust has demonstrated a 1.5 minute (>20%) reduction in time to blood gas results when using the Proxima bedside blood gas monitoring system from Sphere Medical. The results were presented at the British Association of Critical Care Nurses conference and Intensive Care Society State of the Art meeting as a scientific poster.
During routine arterial blood gas (ABG) sampling in intensive care units (ICU), nurses have to leave their patient to use an ABG analyser for processing; this then requires another care giver to step in to observe the critically ill patient to maintain safety. There is also risk of blood splash when taking, transporting and processing the sample. As a point-of-care (POC) analyser that enables blood gas analysis directly at the patient’s bedside, Proxima overcomes these issues. Southampton’s research study was undertaken to compare workload associated with using Proxima versus standard ABG sampling, including safety aspects.
For the comparative study, independent data collectors continuously observed ICU nurses to ensure the accurate capture of all ABG sampling episodes of 20 cardiac ICU patients over 24 hours (10 connected to Proxima and 10 to a standard ABG sampling system). A significant difference in time to result using Proxima compared to a standard BGA system was observed.