An audit of oxygen therapy: Is oxygen prescribed, administered, monitored and withdrawn according to the guidelines?

S. Thiagamoorthy*, S. Merchant, M. Carter, D. Jarvis, N. Bateman

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

An audit of oxygen therapy using the guidelines set out by the National Conference on Oxygen Therapy was conducted at two London teachning hospitals. The audit considered whether oxygen therapy was prescribed, initiated, delivered, monitored and withdrawn according to the guidelines. Of the 65 patients on general wards who were started on oxygen therapy only 23 were done so according to guidelines. At the time of the audit, 50 (77%) of the patients who were receiving oxygen did not require it. Only 22 patients had daily oxygen saturation measurements on air and only 14 had oxygen prescribed on the drug chart. Oxygen is not used as recommended by the guidelines on the general wards. On a specialised respiratory ward the guidelines were fulfilled in all cases using oxygen. This good practice should be an example used by doctors and nurses to improve practice on the general wards.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)127-129
Number of pages3
JournalJournal of Clinical Excellence
Volume2
Issue number2
Publication statusPublished - 2000
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Audit
  • Guidelines
  • Oxygen therapy

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