In the age of Health Care Reform where we are all being tasked with providing more care for less money, simple ways to save are gaining popularity. In an article published in Anesthesiology News, Dana Hawkins-Simons discusses the use of capnography in the Intensive Care Unit to save money. In the article, she refers to an study by Courtney Rowan, MD who compared to total number of blood gas measurements done before and after the ICU began using continuous capnography on all patients.
The study showed that after beginning the policy of capnography measurement on all patients, the number of blood gas tests dropped from an average of 21.6 per patient to only 13.8. This reduction in testing resulted in a savings of $985,130. It was speculated that there could have also been savings due to a reduced requirement to transfuse blood in the smallest of patients where frequent drawing of blood for samples resulted in a lowered Hemoglobin level.
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