Saving oxygen when it was most needed

Abstract

Background: Oxygen is one of the most commonly prescribed drugs across the globe. The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has put enormous burden on hospital infrastructure and oxygen demand. There is lack of knowledge among healthcare workers regarding optimal utilization of oxygen delivery devices, target oxygen saturations and adequate oxygen prescription. A quality improvement project was designed to optimize the oxygen usage in wards.

Methods: A core team comprising one each of consultant, senior resident, junior resident and nursing officer was formed. Fish bone analysis was done to find deficiencies in the existing system and strategy was planned to overcome these deficiencies. The key intervention included education and training of staff, Formulation of Standard Operating Procedures, use of lower target oxygen saturation and use of oxygen concentrators.

Results: The project was carried out for a very short period of 5 days, and a total of 180,000 liters of oxygen was saved. The use of oxygen concentrators increased from zero to 9.5% and thus reducing the load on central oxygen supply.

Conclusion: The proper training and sensitization of health care workers can help in saving oxygen, which further helps in saving precious human life.

Keywords: Covid-19; oxygen; oxygen concentrators; pandemic; standard operating procedures.

Figure 1

A fish-bone analysis showing the problems identified in various domains like people, procedure, policy, and place

Figure 2

Flow chart depicting the steps taken to optimize the oxygen usage. QI = Quality Improvement; SOPs = Standard Operating Procedures

Figure 3

A graphical representation of mean oxygen consumption per day, total flow reduction achieved per day, and total central oxygen saved per day