Gerard Freriks wrote: > Dear all, > > Something to think about. > At least Josina made me. > > Cuff sizes. > Do we really need a list with codes stating small, normal and large? > When we know that small for children is different from small for > adults, etc, etc. > > Isn't it tru that we only need to record whether we measured the blood > pressure with the appropriate or non-appropriate cuffsize. > In other words is it in many occasions not enough to have one flag: > 'trust this' or 'do not trust this'?
there is one important requirement that relates to this question: faithful recording - clinicians have to be allowed to record what they want. Today, they want to record the cuff size in the small/normal/large or child/adult way. Other clinicians, or the same clinician later on can read this and correctly (mostly) infer mentally what the effect of the different cuff sizes is, including - if the 'wrong' cuff size was used, the correct mental adjustment can be made by an experienced clinician. If however, the original clinician puts 'trust this/don't trust this', then all subsequent users of the same information can no longer form their own opinion of the effect of a certain kind of cuff on a certain kind of patient - they now have only the pre-digested opinion of the original person. - thomas beale
