Dare I mention the words "laziness" and "reduced skills"?
It is easier to wrap a cuff around a patients are and push the Go button than to take a manual BP.
But as the clinical lead on this project has pointed out, the machine cannot feel the quality of the pulse, is it weak and thready or strong and bounding? Both have a clinical significance.
As Geoff mentioned, it is hourses for course.
To take manual BP properly takes time but is more accurate, so it is appropriate to a one off measurement where you want to know whether to treat or not, or what the "normal" baseline for that patient is.
You would not want to do this every 10 minutes post op when you are looking for a change in BP to indicate the onset of complications. This is when an automated machine is appropiate.
People have said about "cheap" automated BP machines but even the high cost, hospital grade ones have a stated accuracy that would mean a reading could be in accurate enough to make the difference between treatment for hypertension and not.
mmHg surely kPa is the correct SI unit of pressure - I know some monitors have that as an option as it is used in some countries!!! Anyone know which coutries?
Robert
