Improving Oxygen Prescription Rates by Tailored Intervention on a General Medical Ward

Abstract

The Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust has drug card design which incorporates an area specifically for oxygen prescriptions. The prescribing doctor must identify the target oxygen saturations and identify when the levels ought to be reviewed but is not always filled. It can cause harm in some patients e.g., patient with COPD in whom respiratory drive may be suppressed. It also raises costs due to an unnecessary intervention being given without prescription. Furthermore patients being on oxygen can be a barrier to their discharge as it delays physiotherapy and occupational therapy assessments, it therefore must be reviewed frequently to titrate down with the aim of eventually stopping supplemental oxygen if appropriate except the patients on long-term oxygen therapy.