Health Innovation – Evaluating New Oxygen Flow Devices at Queen’s Hospital Burton to Help Reduce Respiratory Patients’ Length of Treatment
Health Innovation East Midlands is supporting University Hospitals of Derby and Burton (UHDB).to evaluate an innovative new device which can help reduce the time patients need to spend receiving oxygen therapy.
The device, named ‘O2matic PRO 100’, provides automated, safer, and more comfortable oxygen delivery to patients and will be used by colleagues at Queen’s Hospital Burton for six months to analyse its benefits and effectiveness in a real-world setting. If the ‘real world evaluation’ (RWE) is successful, the machines could be rolled out more widely across the NHS.
The machines automatically adjust the levels of oxygen patients receive based on their oxygen saturation levels – a task that has had to be carried out manually by healthcare professionals for more than 100 years. In addition, the device can also set different ‘profiles’ depending on a patient’s clinical condition and the corresponding level of oxygen therapy required. The device is also highly responsive to changes in oxygen saturation levels, being able to adjust or titrate the oxygen flow rapidly with a greater level of accuracy and can provide extremely low levels of oxygen which is not possible on standard oxygen flow meters.
It is hoped these innovations will not only free up time for colleagues to deliver other aspects of care, but will also mean patients are able to more readily reduce their dependence on oxygen therapy, meaning they can recover faster and thus be discharged home or to their next place of care in a shorter time frame.
Sister Joanna Wright, Lead Respiratory Clinical Nurse Specialist at Queen’s Hospital Burton, said she was very happy to be taking part in the evaluation, saying that devices have helped “bring oxygen therapy into the digital age”.
“We believe these devices could significantly increase patient safety, provide patients with additional reassurance and bring the additional benefit of more quickly ‘weaning’ patients off their oxygen flow needs, shortening their length of stay.”
Geoffrey Bott has recently been treated using the new device while receiving care on Queen’s Hospital Burton’s specialist respiratory ward, for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and a collapsed lung. Speaking of his experiences of the device, Geoffrey said:
“I have oxygen at home – which I have had a very positive experience with – yet I felt no real change to my oxygen flow while being treated here. You can hardly tell the difference – which is a very good thing.”
Nicola Smith, a Respiratory Clinical Nurse Specialist, helped to fit the new device for Geoffrey when he was admitted to the ward, and said the time the device saves clinical colleagues means they can continue with other important elements of patient care simultaneously and has been a huge benefit to patients as well as staff:
“The data and trends the devices provide helps us to get a clearer overall picture of oxygen saturation levels and whether oxygen therapy will be more long term or whether a patient is able to be ‘weaned off’ treatment sooner. In doing so, we hope to be able to discharge patients quicker and increase our capacity.”
A total of 10 machines have been provided to UHDB after medical gas therapy manufacturer, BPR Medical and HIEM approached the Trust to evaluate their effectiveness.
Health Innovation East Midlands, Senior Innovation Lead, Philip Stimpson, said: “We have provided guidance and expertise to help the team mobilise and evaluate this exciting project.”
Ian Buckle, Market Development Manager for BPR Medical said: “We have been delighted with the assistance from Health Innovation East Midlands and the enthusiasm from the team at Queen’s Hospital Burton who quickly recognised the potential value of this technology and are looking forward to seeing the data at the end of the evaluation process.”