Resource management for noninvasive monitoring.

Today we are faced with an ever-expanding array of technologies that allow monitoring to be accomplished more accurately and more easily than before. Each institution's needs differ--yet, the methods for determining appropriate utilization are similar. A rational method of utilization includes a criteria-based process for deciding who will be monitored and when. An accurate estimation of the number of units required, their purchase and operating cost, the complexity of operation, and the potential impact on both patients and staff must be calculated. An ongoing educational program for respiratory care practitioners, nurses, and physicians should be implemented to communicate the values and limitations of each device. These technologies can be valuable adjuncts to our process of caring for patients. Used appropriately, noninvasive monitors can fulfill their promise of improving health care. However, they do carry the risk of increasing the overall cost of health care and of distracting us from personally assessing our patients. The existence of an expensive device is not reason enough to employ it. If it were, I would have a difficult time responding to my wife's frequent question of, "If they can send one man to the moon, why can't they send them all?"