It has been well-documented that patient populations managing chronic illnesses or co-morbidities, such as sleep apnea and obesity, are particularly vulnerable to respiratory depression. Current practices for monitoring patients receiving opioids are still not adequate or comprehensive. For example, reliance on periodic physical spot checks by direct-care clinical staff can leave patients largely unmonitored up to 96% of the time.

An award-winning not-for-profit community hospital chose Bernoulli One™ to enable real-time surveillance of post-operative patients who were at risk for respiratory depression. Following the success of that initial implementation, the hospital has subsequently expanded usage to all at-risk patients being monitored by pulse oximetry and capnography, while leveraging the Bernoulli platform for alarm management, reducing the estimated number of alarms by 78%.

According to the health system’s director of respiratory care services, “Bernoulli became just a part of our day-to-day operations. We’re able to safely monitor patients across the entire facility without the constant distraction and fatigue of responding to false alarms. Our nurses and respiratory therapists know it’s there and know it’s working.”

To read or download this case study please click this link: casestudy-patients-at-risk-of-respiratory-depression