Book III: Scientific and Research Applications in Medical Care: Reliability in Distributed Patient Monitoring Systems: An Empirical Approach

摘要

Implementation of the Duke Automatic Monitoring Equipment (DAME) System has provided an opportunity to study the reliability of practical distributed patient monitoring systems. It was believed that the flexibility offered to the anesthesist in tailoring patient monitoring protocols utilizing online data analysis and display would increase the level of patient care. We found in practice that many aspects of patient monitoring which seemed desirable proved to be of marginal utility, and in some cases, aggravated stressful anesthetic situations. Integration of the patient monitoring and record keeping function into one piece of equipment resulted in hardware, software, and operational reliability problems. Although hardware and software problems have been corrected, the operational complexity of such an advanced patient monitor has necessitated a restructuring of patient monitoring priorities.