Intra-Transport of Critically Ill Patients: How to Keep Them Safe  

Speaker: Sheila Whalen, DNP, RN-BC

Description:  

Transporting a critically ill patient within the hospital is common because of the need for advanced diagnostics and procedures. There are potential challenges associated with intra-hospital transport and patient safety is of the utmost importance. The standard for intra-hospital transport is to provide the same level of care requiring connected physiological monitoring as within the ICU.  This webinar will identify the risks and provide a workable framework to ensure patient safety. Strategies include stakeholder engagement, benefits of standardization, wireless assessment, and testing to ensure alarms, trends and waveform will continue be tracked and integrated. The webinar will explore the current literature along with case studies to illustrate the challenges and best practices. 

Learning Objectives

At the conclusion of this session, the learner should be able to: 

1. Understand importance of stakeholder engagement in the design and implementation of seamless patient monitoring during transport.

2. Explain the challenges and strategies for the transformation of healthcare data into information and knowledge for intra hospital patient transport using hospital wireless networks, data workflows, and standards.

3. Design best practices for the seamless intra hospital patient transport to ensure patient safety and data collection.

 

 

COVID Clinical Deterioration outside the ICU: Prediction, Detection, and Escalation

Speaker: Stephen K. Dickson, MS, RRT, RRT-NPS

Description:

Since March 2020, CDC data indicates that more than 1 million people in the US have been infected by COVID-19. Hospitals in various parts of the US continue to face shortages in ICU bed capacity and staff. The diversity in clinical presentation and the potential for rapid deterioration requires effective surveillance of inpatients not presently requiring critical care support.

Learning Objectives:

After this activity, the participant will be able to:

1. Discuss the leading predictors of clinical deterioration in non-COVID-19 + vs COVID-19+ populations.

2. Discuss key clinical complications of COVID-19 associated with rapid clinical deterioration.

3. Discuss the role of early warning scoring and predictive algorithms in guiding the escalation of care for COVID-19 + patients.

 

Patient-Centric Monitoring: Using technology to enhance patient care 

Speaker: Cheryl Le Huquet DNP, RN NE-BC

Description:

In today’s hospital environment, monitoring technology is ever-present. Understanding how this technology can work for clinicians more efficiently will enable healthcare professionals to spend more time with their patients and provide better care. This webinar will describe how an academic medical center successfully addressed cultural and educational barriers to effectively implement a physiologic monitoring technology, and how it improved patient care.

Learning Objectives:

After this activity, the participant will be able to:

1. Create and implement a patient-centered care monitoring model 

2. Describe components of the patient-centered model

3. Develop mobile incident command strategy during an installation

 

Pulse Oximetry: A Necessary Tool in the Covid-19 Pandemic 

Speaker: Gregg Stiver, BSc., RRT, CPRT

Description:

Patients with Covid-19 require close, continuous monitoring of oxygenation. With desaturation, a certain percentage of patients will require supplemental oxygen, and others can advance quickly to high flow oxygen therapy or mechanical ventilation. The arterial blood gas test is the gold standard for measuring oxygenation, however it is an invasive procedure, and not a continuous monitoring option. Pulse oximetry can provide continuous measurement of blood oxygen levels. In this webinar, evidence will be presented to ensure the SPO2 data is reliable, and if questionable, we will discuss which other probe placement sites can provide more sustainable results, and when this modality may need to be discontinued.

Learning Objectives:

Upon completion of this educational activity, the participant will be able to:

1. Describe the mechanism of pulse oximetry

2. Discuss the key indicators to know when pulse oximetry is no longer providing reliable data

3. Describe the advantages and disadvantages of various sensor placement such, finger, nose, ear and forehead 

 

High Flow Therapy and Non-Invasive Ventilation in COVID-19 Patients 

Speaker: Thomas Piraino, RRT, FCSRT, FAARC

Description:

The initial fear of COVID-19 transmission to healthcare workers resulted in many choosing to avoid the use of HFNC or NIV therapy in these patients. Most of the concerns were not supported by evidence, rather lack of evidence.  This presentation will discuss the use of HFNC and NIV therapy in COVID-19 patients, and present supportive data for its use, while providing suggested parameters important for monitoring success or failure of therapy.

Learning Objectives:

Upon completion of this educational activity, the participant will be able to:

1. Discuss the initial concerns of HFNC and NIV use in COVID-19 associated respiratory failure

2. Describe what evidence exists for non-COVID-19 respiratory failure support with HFNC and NIV

3. Explain clinical concepts related to using HFNC and NIV in COVID-19 patients in respiratory failure

 

Assessing Ventilation and Blood flow with Capnography 

Speaker: Tom Ahrens, PhD, RN, FAAN

Description:

Capnography has the unique ability to aid clinicians in assessing both ventilation and blood flow.  In this program, a review of the physiology that allows exhaled CO2 to monitor ventilation and perfusion is presented.  The emphasis in this program is using capnography to prevent over-sedation and monitoring of blood flow. Due to the ability to assess both ventilation and perfusion, capnography has been called the “15 second vital sign”.  In the midst of the pandemic, capnography has shown to detect severe respiratory failure (hypercarbia) and pulmonary emboli due to the clotting disorders in COVID. Actual clinical patient examples are used to illustrate the value of capnography in patient assessment.  The use of capnography is likely to continue to grow throughout the hospital, outpatient and pre-hospital settings.  

Learning Objectives:

After this activity, the participant will be able to:

1. Recall the relationship between PaCO2 and PetCO2 levels

2. Discuss how the reason why capnography is a rapid assessment of inadequate ventilation and perfusion

3. Discuss how capnography can reflect a patient at risk for over-sedation

4. Describe how to use capnography in monitoring blood flow

 

Advanced Pulmonary Assessment Use of Capnography and Oximetry 

Speakers: Tom Ahrens, PhD, RN, FAAN and Michael H. Ackerman DNS, RN, CENP, FCCM, FNAP, FAANP

Description:

Capnography has the unique ability to aid clinicians in assessing both ventilation and blood flow.  Oximetry can identify threats to pulmonary function.  In this webinar, a review of the physiology that allows PetCO2 and SpO2 to monitor ventilation, perfusion and lung function is presented.  The emphasis in this webinar is using capnography to prevent over-sedation and monitoring of blood flow, while oximetry is used to warn of impending respiratory dysfunction. The use of these two technologies can be argued to be the most important vital signs available to the nurse and respiratory therapist.  

Learning Objectives:

After this activity, the participant will be able to:

1.  Discuss how capnography can reflect a patient at risk for over-sedation

2.  Discuss how the reason why capnography is a rapid assessment of inadequate ventilation and perfusion

3.  Describe how oximetry (pulse) can identify threats to pulmonary function

4.  Describe how SpO2 can be used in COVID patients