[Hospital oxygen therapy: routine or ignorance?]

To determine how oxygen therapy is being used in general surgery (GS), internal medicine (IM) and pneumology (PN) units of Hospital General Yagüe in Burgos (Spain), as well as to study patient compliance with treatment. Cross-sectional descriptive study. Case histories taken on 2 randomly chosen days one month apart were reviewed. For patients receiving oxygen therapy we analyzed both physician and nursing records on diagnosis, flow, route, form of oxygen administration (continuous-discontinuous), determining the agreement of medical records with what was actually used by the patient. Baseline pulse oximetry readings were available for all patients. One hundred one patients were enrolled in the study. The most frequently recorded diagnosis was chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Therapy was prescribed based on gasometric criteria in 62.5% of IM patients, 73.1% of PN patients and 23% of GS patients. The route and flow were recorded mainly in IM and PN wards, but not in GS; form of administration, however, was recorded for only 2 patients. We found agreement between physician and nursing orders in 26.8% in the IM ward, in 60% in the PN unit and in 5.3% of GS cases. The administrative route ordered was that which was actually used in 80% in PN 42.9% in IM and 10.5% in GS. The patients received oxygen fewer days than prescribed (a coefficient of 1 for days ordered/days used in 54.5%).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)