Currently during transport, Transport Ventilators are hooked onto the sides of beds and not secured well, this means that they are often bumped into walls and knocked onto the ground. This can change the settings and set off an alarm on the ventilator. Sometimes for unknown reasons the patient’s breathing can also change and this change means the transport team needs to act. The usual response to any error in the machine is to take patients off of the transport ventilator and begin manual ventilation. Manual Ventilation is not the best fall back plan because it can disrupt the progress of a patient.
In this conjecture I explored the design of having a Transport Ventilator result to a default mode when the machine or the patient becomes out of synch. The default will replicate what a manual ventilator can do but without having to unplug the patient or have the human error that comes along with a manual ventilator. Another feature I would like to implement is an automatic call to the patients Respiratory Therapist. This will hopefully save time and help the RT get to the patient more quickly. Respiratory Therapists are able to get there quickly and reset the settings they need on the Transport Ventilator.
