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Articles and journal scans about Quality assurance
Journal Scan
April 2011
Improving patient safety by reducing sample identification errors
The 1999 US Institute of Medicine report "To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health Care System" provided an influential wake-up call for healthcare workers concerning the frequency of preventable medical errors. Initiatives over the past decade aimed at improving the safety of patient-sample testing represent just...
Quality assurance
Preanalytical phase
Journal Scan
October 2010
Challenging intensive care policy
In the intensive care unit blood is frequently sampled for arterial blood gases via an indwelling arterial catheter. Around a third of critically ill patients have such catheters inserted; they allow not only easy access for blood sampling but also continuous monitoring of blood pressure. In a short editorial the...
Quality assurance
Preanalytical phase
Journal Scan
October 2010
Blood gas interpretation in ER: room for improvement
If the results of a recent New Zealand study are representative, there is room for improvement in the quality of blood gas test result interpretation among emergency-room medical staff. A total of 80 emergency-room doctors (37 consultants and 43 emergency-medicine trainees) voluntarily submitted themselves for a...
Blood gases/acid-base
Quality assurance
Journal Scan
July 2010
Pseudo-hypoxemia
Arterial blood gas analysis includes measurement of partial pressure of oxygen (pO2(a)) and calculation of oxygen saturation (sO2(a)), both useful for assessing patient oxygenation status. Hypoxemia is diagnosed if pO2(a) is below the lower limit of the reference range (10.6 kPa, 88 mmHg). Pseudo-hypoxemia is...
Blood gases/acid-base
Quality assurance
Preanalytical phase
Journal Scan
July 2008
Accuracy of pulse oximetry affected by arterial pCO2
Arterial oxygen saturation sO2(a) is a parameter calculated during blood gas analysis that is useful for monitoring respiratory function. Pulse oximetry provides a safer and more convenient, non-invasive means of measuring oxygen saturation that is used in many clinical settings.
The value of pulse oximetry depends...
Blood gases/acid-base
Quality assurance