An Automatic Critical Care Urine Meter

Abraham Otero,Roemi Fernandez,Andrey Apalkov,Manuel Armada

doi:10.3390/s121013109

Abraham Otero, Roemi Fernandez + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/s121013109

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Abstract

Nowadays patients admitted to critical care units have most of their physiological parameters measured automatically by sophisticated commercial monitoring devices. More often than not, these devices supervise whether the values of the parameters they measure lie within a pre-established range, and issue warning of deviations from this range by triggering alarms. The automation of measuring and supervising tasks not only discharges the healthcare staff of a considerable workload but also avoids human errors in these repetitive and monotonous tasks. Arguably, the most relevant physiological parameter that is still measured and supervised manually by critical care unit staff is urine output (UO). In this paper we present a patent-pending device that provides continuous and accurate measurements of patient's UO. The device uses capacitive sensors to take continuous measurements of the height of the column of liquid accumulated in two chambers that make up a plastic container. The first chamber, where the urine inputs, has a small volume. Once it has been filled it overflows into a second bigger chamber. The first chamber provides accurate UO measures of patients whose UO has to be closely supervised, while the second one avoids the need for frequent interventions by the nursing staff to empty the container.

Highlights

Any physiological parameter of a patient admitted to a critical care unit can be sensed automatically by sophisticated commercial monitoring devices and displayed on a screen next to the patient’s bed
One of our goals is to reduce the time that the healthcare staff needs for tasks related to urine output (UO)
As we argued in the introduction of the article, in a critical care unit of a developed country with 15 patients, up to 12 hours per day are necessary for tasks related to supervising UO

Summary

Introduction

Any physiological parameter of a patient admitted to a critical care unit can be (and often is) sensed automatically by sophisticated commercial monitoring devices and displayed on a screen next to the patient’s bed. This provides invaluable information for interpreting the patient’s state. In most cases, these devices provide supervision capabilities that check if the parameters’ values remain within a pre-established range considered as normal for each patient [1]. These monitoring devices discharge the healthcare staff of a considerable workload, since they eliminate the need to continuously supervise the values of the physiological parameters of every patient

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