Pulse oximetry in low-resource settings during the COVID-19 pandemic

Although pulse oximetry monitoring capacity is well met in most of the Ethiopian operating rooms surveyed, four referral and two general hospitals reported at least one operating room without a patient monitor. Furthermore, large gaps remain in other critical units of the hospital, including PACUs, ICUs, and emergency rooms, where on average there were 1–3 unmonitored high-acuity beds per unit. Particularly in emergency rooms, about 75% of critical beds were unmonitored in referral and general hospitals, and primary hospitals had essentially no access to pulse oximetry. Over the past 8 years, Lifebox has distributed 1108 devices in Ethiopia, typically directly to anesthesia providers; nearly half of those surveyed had received one, and of 140 devices that were identified during the survey work, 123 were still in use up to 7 years later (nine were reported as missing and eight reported as malfunctioning).

Authors: Nichole Starr, Daniela Rebollo, Yohannes Molla Asemu, Leulayehu Akalu, Hanan Ali Mohammed, Misrak Woldeyohannes Menchamo, Eyayelem Melese, Senait Bitew, Iain Wilson, Mahelet Tadesse, Thomas G Weiser