Respiratory care
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Multicenter Study Observational Study
Emergency Department Blood Gas Utilization and Changes in Ventilator Settings.
Mechanically ventilated patients increasingly spend hours in emergency department beds before ICU admission. This study evaluated the performance of blood gases in mechanically ventilated subjects in the emergency department and subsequent changes to mechanical ventilation settings. ⋯ In this prospective observational study of subjects mechanically ventilated in the emergency department, the majority had a blood gas checked while in the emergency department. While ABGs were associated with having changes made to ventilator settings in the emergency department, clinical findings of hypoxemia, hyperoxia, hypercapnia, and acidemia were not. Inattention to blood gas results may lead to missed opportunities in guiding ventilator changes in the emergency department.