New air ambulance equipment has improved outcomes for patients
New equipment has meant Sussex air ambulance crews can speed up how they respond to blood pressure changes in patients.
Air Ambulance Charity Kent Surrey Sussex (KSS) has introduced Arterial Line Blood Pressure Monitoring.
Now, KSS’s medical teams can obtain a patient’s blood pressure reading every heartbeat, rather than every two minutes, significantly speeding up how quickly they can respond to changes and improve patient outcomes.
This is particularly critical for patients with head injuries, where accurate management of blood pressure can help to reduce secondary brain injury.
Arterial Line Blood Pressure Monitoring has been introduced as a result of experience gained by the KSS medical team whilst undertaking inter-hospital transfers over the last year and is delivered using KSS’s Tempus Pro Monitors, which are not available in a land ambulance.
KSS has invested in additional equipment, including lines and cannulas, as well as staff training in order to offer this.
David Welch, CEO, said: “We continually look at evolving our service and pushing boundaries in order to save more lives and deliver the best possible outcomes to patients.
“The introduction of Arterial Line Blood Pressure Monitoring is a fantastic development to our service and I’d like to thank our incredible service delivery team and award-winning operational support team for helping to make this happen.”
Dr Duncan Bootland, medical director, added: “This is a major enhancement in monitoring blood pressure more accurately. In patients with head injuries who need a general anaesthetic, controlling blood pressure is known to be important, and we also know that monitoring blood pressure with a blood pressure cuff is not perfectly accurate and is more difficult in the prehospital environment due to movement of the patient.
“Using arterial lines to monitor blood pressure is commonly done in critical illness in hospitals but is not widely done in pre-hospital care. This is a great example of KSS’s ongoing focus on improving patient care.”
David Wright, operational manager, concluded: “This development has taken a great deal of careful planning and preparation across our service delivery team. It is something that will play an important part in the care we provide to some patients, particularly those with head injuries.”