I'm Dr. Joshua Schwimmer, a nephrologist and internal medicine physician in New York City. • Kidney Notes was the first active nephrology blog. (Trivia: Kidney Notes is so old that the National Library of Medicine still uses it as an example of how to formally cite blogs.) • Professionally, you can find me at Kidney.nyc. • Kidney Notes is for educational purposes only, not medical advice. Consult qualified health care professionals. See disclaimer.

Friday, March 17, 2006

The Respiratory Rate As Secret Code

From Blogborygmi:
I've noticed that our ED's nurses, when they want to bring to my attention a patient's tachypnea, actually record "19" or "21" as the respiratory rate ... It's like they're sending me a secret code through the vitals that not all is well. Sometimes, when things are busy, this can be our only interaction -- so it's particularly sly and efficient.
Technorati Tags: , , , ,
Tags: ,