Unfortunately,
most people in
charge of capi-
tal procurement
aren't anesthe-
sia machine
experts, and
they don't spend
enough time
with vendors to
analyze and
fully understand
the key differ-
ences among
machines.
Instead they fall
back on "comfort" features — the ergonomic components and other
aspects that are easier to grasp: How big is the machine? What's the
footprint? Does it have a shelf? Does it have a footrest? How's the
lighting if the room is dark? Does it have nice wheels that make it eas-
ier to move? Can you mount it on the wall?
Potentially important considerations, granted. But the question of
which anesthesia machine is best suited for a given facility requires a
deeper understanding of the constantly evolving technology, a famil-
iarity with the providers who'll be using the machines and a consider-
ation of the kinds of patients they'll be used for. Let's take a look at
what's out there and some of the factors you need to consider.
1. What types of patients are you working with? The bottom-line goal is
to always keep patients breathing as normally as possible. But some
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O U T P A T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | O C T O B E R 2 0 1 5
z EXPERT ADVICE Dr. Olympio talks to residents at Duke University
about the features offered by various anesthesia machines.
John
Newman,
Duke
Anesthesiology
