ECG recorder distribution and hospital utilization

Although use of the portable ECG recorder is commonplace, information on actual daily use in an acute care hospital is scarce. To determine whether machines are efficiently used, we attached timers to ECG recorders in 17 wards and clinics to collect data on the time of actual use. Usage ranged from 31 min/day in the coronary care unit to 0.7 min/day in the postpartum ward, and averaged 8.0 +/- 8 min/day for all locations. Seventy-five percent of the recorders were used less than 10 min/day and 25 percent of the recorders were used less than 2 min/day. On a per-bed basis they were used 0.8 +/- 1.4 min/day. Almost no correlation was found between the number of portable ECG recorders and number of beds in 20 teaching and 23 nonteaching hospitals. The number of beds ranged from 11 to 70 per ECG recorder in teaching hospitals and from 14 to 122 in nonteaching hospitals. Nonteaching hospitals averaged 59 +/- 26 beds per recorder; teaching hospitals averaged 34 +/- 17 beds per machine. Some ECG recorders seem to be markedly underutilized and some hospitals seem to be oversupplied with these devices. To reverse this, establishing an equipment committee to see that equipment is efficiently used is recommended.