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FLASH MOB RESEARCH: A SINGLE-DAY, MULTI-CENTER, RESIDENT-DIRECTED STUDY OF RESPIRATORY RATE.
Chest. 2012 Nov 29;
Authors: Semler1 MW, Stover1 DG, Copland A, Hong3 G, Johnson MJ, Kriss MS, Otepka H, Wang7 L, Christman1 BW, Rice1 TW
Abstract
ABSTRACT BACKGROUND: Vital signs are critical data in the care of hospitalized patients, but the accuracy with which respiratory rates are recorded in this population remains uncertain. We employed a novel "Flash Mob Research" approach to evaluate the accuracy of recorded respiratory rates in inpatients. METHODS: Single-day, resident-led, prospective observational study of recorded versus directly observed vital signs in non-ventilated, non-intensive care unit patients on internal medicine "teaching services" at six large tertiary care centers across the United States. RESULTS: Among the 368 inpatients included, the median respiratory rate was 16 breaths per minute for the directly observed values and 18 breaths per minute for the recorded respiratory rates with a median difference of 2 breaths per minute (p<0.001). Respiratory rates of 18 or 20 accounted for 71.8% (95% CI: 67.1% to 76.4%) of the recorded respiratory rate values as compared to 13.0% (95% CI: 9.5% to 16.5%) of the directly observed measurements. For individual patients, there was less agreement between recorded and directly observed respiratory rate compared to pulse rate. CONCLUSIONS: Among hospitalized patients across the United States, recorded respiratory rates are higher than directly observed measurements and are significantly more likely to be 18 or 20 breaths per minute.
PMID: 23197319 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]