Masimo announces that Holland Hospital, ranked as one of America's 100 Best Hospitals in 2013 by Healthgrades, is adding new clinical capabilities that allow clinicians to noninvasively and continuously monitor hemoglobin blood levels using Masimo SpHb®.
Holland Hospital is now leveraging Masimo technology with noninvasive hemoglobin (SpHb) – clinically shown to reduce risky and unnecessary blood transfusions, and speed up necessary blood transfusions, while dramatically reducing costs – in its operating rooms.
"Our anesthesiologists started using Masimo Pulse CO-Oximetry technology for noninvasive hemoglobin monitoring during surgeries that took a long time and had the potential for a lot of blood loss, such as spinal surgeries," said Jeffrey Hodges , manager of the Cardiopulmonary Department at Holland Hospital. "Based on those results, the anesthesiologists then requested that the use of Masimo pulse oximeters be expanded to other floors."
Hemoglobin levels are used as a primary indicator for red blood cell (RBC) transfusion, but conventional laboratory measurements are only available intermittently and results can be delayed in the period between blood draw and laboratory analysis. This time gap of information can lead to sub-optimal transfusion decisions.1 RBC transfusion overuse as well as delayed RBC transfusions can increase patient risk and cost of care. Multiple observational studies have shown that patients receiving RBC transfusions have an 88% higher mortality, 69% higher infection rate, and 250% higher rate of acute respiratory distress syndrome.2
SpHb monitoring provides real-time directional trends in hemoglobin, such as indicating stable hemoglobin when it may be perceived to be dropping, and rising hemoglobin when it may be perceived to not be rising fast enough. A recent award-winning studay from Cairo University in Egypt also showed that once clinicians determined a transfusion was needed, they were able to initiate transfusions 82% faster – in about 9 minutes, compared to about 50 minutes for patients not being monitored by SpHb.3 That same study also showed SpHb can help clinicians reduce unnecessary and risky RBC transfusions, which can improve patient outcomes while dramatically lowering the cost of care.
The use of SpHb is part of Holland Hospital's standardization to Masimo SET® Measure-Through Motion and Low Perfusion™ pulse oximetry, shown to virtually eliminate false alarms4 and help clinicians better detect life-threatening events.5
"Like many health organizations, we're concerned about the safety of post-op patients on opioids, who are prone to respiratory depression," Hodges added. "With that in mind, we're making Masimo pulse oximetry a part of our standard of care."
Joe Kiani , founder and CEO of Masimo, stated: "We are honored that Holland Hospital, one of the top-performing hospitals in the nation with an inspiring reputation for excellence, has selected Masimo for its patient monitoring needs. As a forward-thinking healthcare organization that embraces best-in-class medical technologies, we are eager to help Holland Hospital improve its already superb patient safety and outcomes."
1 Friedman MT et al. Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2006 Apr;130(4):474-9.
2 Marik PE.et.al. Crit Care Med. 2008;36(9):2667-74
3 Wael NA, Maher F. Reduction in Red Blood Cell Transfusions during Neurosurgery with Noninvasive and Continuous Hemoglobin Monitoring. Proceedings of the Society for Technology in Anesthesia Annual Meeting ; 2013 Jan 9-12; Phoenix AZ. Available here.
4 Shah N, Ragaswamy H, Govindugari K, Estanol L. "Performance of three new-generation pulse oximeters during motion and low perfusion in volunteers." Journal of Clinical Anesthesia. 2012 (10.1016/j.jclinane.2011.10.012) Available online here
5 Taenzer, Andreas H.; Pyke, Joshua B.; McGrath, Susan P.; Blike, George T. "Impact of Pulse Oximetry Surveillance on Rescue Events and Intensive Care Unit Transfers: A Before-and-After Concurrence Study." Anesthesiology, February 2010, Vol. 112, Issue 2. Available online here