A Result Is Not an Intervention
by: rod
Blood gases are everywhere in Emergency Medicine.
We take them early. We repeat them. We discuss the pH, base excess and lactate.
But getting the result is not the same as understanding it and doing something about it.
At ResusPro, our simulated blood gas analyser produces results like this during scenarios.
You ask for a blood gas, you get it. In real time.
The team then has to notice that the result is available, retrieve it, interpret it in the context of the patient – and decide what happens next.
A pH of 7.18.
A base excess of −16.
A lactate of 7.0.
The numbers aren’t the endpoint. They’re information about a patient whose physiology is telling us something important.
What is causing it?
Are our interventions working?
Does our plan need to change?
When should we measure it again?
And crucially: what do we need to do about the result?
Point-of-care testing can dramatically shorten the time between taking a sample and getting an answer.
But it only improves care if someone sees that answer, understands what it means and acts on it.
A result is not an intervention.
What matters is what the team does next.
