by
Diana Bradley, Staff Writer | March 19, 2012
From the March 2012 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
In the next five years, as sophisticated AIMS and EMR technology drives the market, equipment must keep up, as well as offer cost saving advantages and time efficiency. Devices such as MAQUET Medical System USA's Flow-i Anesthesia Delivery System — which received FDA 510(k) clearance in June of 2011 and is the newest anesthesia system on the market — are designed with this in mind, including a communication port for remote diagnostic and repair services. Nancy Werfel, MAQUET’s marketing manager for anesthesia, notes that Flow-i’s comprehensive service, availability of parts and reduced downtime are important components.
Low-flow anesthesia: Another cost-effective route
Back in 1996, a European Journal of Anesthesiology paper noted that the reduction in fresh gas flow offered opportunities for significant cost savings and reduced workplace environmental impacts. Rossi notes that this observation is probably even timelier right now as providers are constantly tasked to provide high quality care while simultaneously lowering costs.
“We in GE Healthcare have definitely seen an increased awareness among anesthesiologists for low-flow anesthesia,” Rossi says. “Globally, we have seen our customers responding positively to our low-flow enabled anesthesia systems and Advanced Breathing System platform products—Aisys, Avance and AespireView.”
MAQUET’s FLOW-i Anesthesia
Delivery System is the newest
anesthesia system on the market.
Although low-flow anesthesia is currently used more frequently in Europe, more and more U.S. clinicians are administering flows close to 2L and below, according to Werfel. Products like the Flow-I system have the capability to support low-flow anesthesia with settings as low as 0.3L.
“I think that there are definite advantages to low-flow anesthesia, such as less pollution, less patient heat loss, and fewer anesthetics used,” says Dr. Ashley Ryan, an anesthesiologist at Oconee Regional Medical Center in Milledgeville, Ga.
Low-flow gasses are especially useful because they release less exhaled volatile anesthetic into the atmosphere, which reduces the environmental imprint anesthesiologists make as they care for their surgical patients.
