Preventing Unnecessary Deaths with Capnography

Respiratory depression from the administration of pain medication is a leading cause of preventable death in hospitals, putting patients – and hospitals – at increasing risk.

According to the most recent HealthGrades report, postoperative respiratory failure is the third most common patient safety incident in hospitals each year, affecting an estimated 600,000 patients at a cost of $1.5 billion.

The frequency of postoperative respiratory failure has increased in each of the last four HealthGrades surveys, now occurring in 17.2 of every 1,000 patients.

As a nurse manager, you’ll want to be aware of the growing mandate for capnography as the standard of care for post-operative ventilation monitoring.

A white paper discussing the growing mandate for capnography is available. Download it here.