Doctors blood pressure machine is broke

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Chris142

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Cut my finger at work Monday. Went to urgent care to get checked out. Their blood pressure machine showed me to be 212/115!

Never had high blood pressure in the past. Got sent to the emergency room because of it. Got checked there and it was 136/56.

Got stitches.

Went back today to urgent to get my finger looked at per the instructions I got.

Same machine showed me to be 225/115! Girl went and got the old skool tester with the actual guage and it showed me to be 140/85.

Mind y'all that I hate hospitals,it's over 100f outside and I ran across the parking lot.

They are sending the machine out to be fixed lol
 
so do they pay for your emergency room visit now? since their faulty equipment sent you there? (guessing no)

If you think your blood pressure was high.. wait until you get a bill.

For setting my broken wrist (still required surgery 3 days later) it was $14000
to reset the overtight splint the next day after swelling-- a 30min visit and 2min from dr.. it was $6800

Thats not including the sidecharges such as the anesthetist --was twilighted for setting wrist etc... IIRC those ran about another 5k
 
THIS is a real issue...........in most everything else in our lives - from shipping to time to food to cars to most all products we use daily - the place/factory must have calibrated equipment, calibrated directly or 1-2 steps from a known standard (NIST)

BUT clinic health care? I have to trust the accuracy of a single sample on an uncalibrated piece of equipment? WTAF??? Just like when the tell me my whatever is elevated, it's not actionable on one data point.
 
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Rand said:
so do they pay for your emergency room visit now? since their faulty equipment sent you there? (guessing no)

If you think your blood pressure was high.. wait until you get a bill.

For setting my broken wrist (still required surgery 3 days later) it was $14000
to reset the overtight splint the next day after swelling-- a 30min visit and 2min from dr.. it was $6800

Thats not including the sidecharges such as the anesthetist --was twilighted for setting wrist etc... IIRC those ran about another 5k
Click to expand...
Fortunately I did it at work so workman's comp is paying.
 
Machines do have to be repaired/recalibrated from time to time. Nothing like a manual BP check. I would hate to think that people were being prescribed blood pressure meds based on that machine.
 
Chris142 said:
Cut my finger at work Monday. Went to urgent care to get checked out. Their blood pressure machine showed me to be 212/115!

Never had high blood pressure in the past. Got sent to the emergency room because of it. Got checked there and it was 136/56.

Got stitches.

Went back today to urgent to get my finger looked at per the instructions I got.

Same machine showed me to be 225/115! Girl went and got the old skool tester with the actual guage and it showed me to be 140/85.

Mind y'all that I hate hospitals,it's over 100f outside and I ran across the parking lot.

They are sending the machine out to be fixed lol
Click to expand...
I totally understand about blood pressure machines. I went to one of my doctors and got a 158/85 reading. I told the girl that it wasn’t right. Six months later, I return. I go to the same room and get the same reading. I let her know that her machine needs to be fixed. I also told her about my prior visit.
 
Funny thing, I was feeling bad, and somehow ended up in one of those emergency places. I registered the approx same thing, and they sent me over the street to main hospital. There I accepted the CT scan since I'd had some headaches, but even their measurement was approx 160/90.

I later had surgery for pulling a tendon on my hip, and then, went to endocrinologist to see if something out of whack causing osteoporosis. He said things were ok except I needed to monitor A1C because 5.9. On TV they have miracle drugs to get A1C under 7.

Wife goes to heart doc for slight arythmia getting atenolol, and she tells wife her numbers how she needs a statin. BS! her numbers give her a 1% chance of heart attack with wonderful cholesterol, and she weigh s 80#.

Wife goes to optometrist for glasses, and gets the sad story she might have glaucoma. She goes to opthamalogist spending $200 that Medicare doesn't pay to get story that she has unusual large optic nerve.

You'll know how they use fear at BMW when you come? Well, apparently fear marketing has invaded the medical field.
 
Yep. Biomeds keep equipment calibrated and working properly.

I was a Biomed in the Air Force and for a major equipment manufacturer.
 
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Out of calibration happens.... A fair amount...

I read a blood pressure of a patient being 200/98.... It was from a machine.

I did a manual blood pressure and got 212/100... I did the manual reading to verify if that machine was off. In this case it was accurate. I always did manual blood pressure check if it was either way high or rather low.

Lowest blood pressure I took manual was 50/32... Lady had just had dialysis. No abnormal symptoms. Now I had a 58/36 and that lady was bleeding internally rather badly... Heart rate was mid 140s just laying there. That was spooky.

Lower pressures can happen too at times if the machine is not calibrated.
 
My dentist checks bp before doing the 6 month cleanings, and my dr checked mine last time I was there for an ear infection. Always measures high because being in those settings scares the hell out of me haha! I come home and check it and it's my usual 116/70.
 
zrxkawboy said:
I repair medical equipment for a living. Hospitals are required to check their equipment on a regular basis, but many times, clinics have no such requirements.
Click to expand...


I wonder how often we checked our equipment... At the hospital I worked at. Typically no issues I have to say.

Though our old PCA machines were a different story. One failed mechanically and it just about killed a patient with 100 mg of IV Dilaudid. We had all brand new PCA machines within a week of that incident.
 
Before sending you to the ER, they should have done what bbhero described.
Check a manual pressure.

Any time I get a extreme range pressure on an auto machine, I grab a manual cuff and stethoscope.

Even more thorough is to check in both arms( as long as they don't have dialysis ports , or have had
A mastectomy).

To send you to the ER without checking a manual pressure was just lazy.
 
Pablo said:
THIS is a real issue...........in most everything else in our lives - from shipping to time to food to cars to most all products we use daily - the place/factory must have calibrated equipment, calibrated directly or 1-2 steps from a known standard (NIST)

BUT clinic health care? I have to trust the accuracy of a single sample on an uncalibrated piece of equipment? WTAF??? Just like when the tell me my whatever is elevated, it's not actionable on one data point.
Click to expand...

I used to repair, test and calibrate / PM cardiac balloon pumps and heart / lung perfusion equipment used for open heart surgery.

There’s dedicated test equipment and simulators for making 10000% sure its working properly. Zero corners could be cut and when I did a PM every 6 months. I redid the PM and full calibration any time I touched it so I was confident it was ready to go in any situation. A patient can be on a balloon pump for weeks.

During open heart surgery the patient has one foot in the grave.... and the other foot balancing on a banana peel.

Once a year Tektronix field service engineer would calibrate most of our test equipment, the other stuff they couldn’t calibrate we had to ship to Duluth, GA.


Fun Fact:
Many surgeons are very superstitious and prefer a certain operating room. Even if there's another identical room (same exact equipment) they will wait for busy room to be cleaned for them to do their surgery.

Surgeons will never admit they are superstitious, but it’s very obvious the feel comfortable in ‘their‘ operating room especially if things have gone smoothly. They don’t want to jinx themselves.

😷
 
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malfunctioning equipment aside your BP varies a LOT depending on many things + quite often you can be prescribed BP medication when not needed BUT its up to YOU to accept or decline ANY meds!! lots of info on BP on the net + the #'s were lowered years ago as to when medication is prescribed!! you must look out for YOU + today its easier than ever with info on line, BUT of course lots of stuff that may not be true + many web sites are funded by big pharma!!
 
A local quack had the same situation and for years she put most people on BP. meds. Seriously...
 
136/56 isn't any better...high pulse pressure suggests either a high stroke volume and/or decreased compliance of the aorta - both are bad.
 
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