In various chronic diseases, patients themselves need regular automated checking of BP, Pulse, ECG, Capnography. Patient Monitor, also Known as Multi-parameter Monitors Can Report All the Common Parameters and are Better than Simple Pulse Oximeters. Needless to say, doctors can be patients too. With a varying range of pricing from GE healthcare to Made in China electronics has a wider range of function and pricing of the devices.
Patient Monitor : Understanding the Standards and Features
Apart from the common IEEE Standards, ISO Standards, Patient Monitor Needs to pass Standardization bodies for the Anaesthetists for calculating the chance of error. Patient Monitors are for the Anaesthetists, entry-level devices still can be used by them. As a part of a major patient safety & risk management effort, they have devised specific, detailed, mandatory standards for minimal patient monitoring.
Features of this devices can widely vary, advanced devices have standard hardware Ports for connecting to the network via router or Printers. Lowest end devices are used by the doctors of some specialities for various reasons. From vital signs monitors and pulse oximeters, as well as anaesthesia systems, capnography, defibrillators, and many other types of equipment are called patient monitor. These are all-in-one embedded systems.
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A good multi-parameter monitor should have the following (for the Doctors) :
- CRT display for bright and wide angle visibility of waveforms along with bright LED displays of various measure values like SPO2, NIBP, pulse, temperature etc.
- Ability to monitor 3/5 leads ECG, SPO2, NIBP, temperature respiration.
- Battery life of over two hours.
- Comprehensive audio visual alarms for all parameters.
- Capacity to trend at least 144 sets of tabular trends for all parameters of the patient.
- Tolerance for power voltage from 110 Volts to 240 Volts.
- Monitor and diagnostic quality ECG with automatic gain selection and of cascading waveforms.
- Display that shows functional oxygen saturation from 40 to 100 per cent with accuracy of +/- 2 digits and updating frequency with every heartbeat.
- Ability to measure non-invasive blood pressure using oscillometric method within the measurement range 30 mmHg to 250 mmHg.
- Manual and automatic interval settings of 1, 3, 5, 10, 15, 30 and 60 minutes.
- Facility of bi-directional RS 232 serial interface for transmission of data.
- Printer (optional): Should be thermal array printer with 54 mm print width and capable to print both waveform and numeric values.
- EtCO2 (optional): Should use side stream method to display capnograph with measurement range of 0 to 98 mmHg. It must have capability to make compensation of N2O and O2 influence. Also, it should have fast start-up time of less than 12 seconds to acquire the waveform. Accessories must include adult, neonatal and pediatric cuffs, SpO2 sensor for adults/neonates/pediatric patients.
Patients can have an approximate idea of the features from the above list.
Patient Monitor : Pricing Guide For Patients & Doctors
Doctors should limit themselves to buy the devices from Standard companies including (but not limited to) Phillips, GE. Patients and Medical Students, however, have the reason to think about budget, when defibrillator capnograph etc function not needed, you may run for a budget device. The reason for higher pricing for the OT devices is preciseness, faster response and faster processing of data (they use different processor technology offered by Intel), the ability for sterilization. Under normal condition, so many sophisticated functions not needed.
GE Healthcare’s CARESCAPE V100 (blue coloured in the photograph) and VC150 vital signs monitor are standard low-end device. As like all electronic stuff, everything is available on eBay to Amazon – from GE or Made in China company. GE Healthcare’s CARESCAPE V100 costs in between $750 to $1000, whereas with more features, Made in China Patient monitor costs around $270 (white colour in the photograph). On the other hand, we need minimum GE B40 Patient Monitor, which costs 5.5K USD per unit.
