[melanie19]

The fluid warmer we use in our ED only heats to 37C, which isn't suitable for a hypothermic patient. Does anyone have any other suggestion? Is microwaving ok.

[oramar]

Originally posted by melanie19:
The fluid warmer we use in our ED only heats to 37C, which isn't suitable for a hypothermic patient. Does anyone have any other suggestion? Is microwaving ok.

Micro waves produce very uneven temps, areas of searing heat and cold in the same bag.

[hollykate]

Melanie,
Has your hospital invested in something called The Hotline? It warms everything up pretty quickly. We use it in our ED and in our ICU in conjunction with the level one rapid infuser.

[Cathy RN]

We use the level 1 fluid warmer as well it infuses at 40 degrees. To the best of my knowledge you only want to warm about a degree an hour. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong......

[lablover]

we keep bags of NS and LR in our blanket warmer so they are always available.

[Sarah, RNBScN]

Post #5

we keep bags of NS and LR in our blanket warmer so they are always available.
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We keep ours in the same unit BUT we were advised that they must be labelled with a date of 2wks. for discard once they have been kept in a warmer cupboard.

We also have the "hotline" which we use.

[mommatrauma]

You can use a microwave, however it has to be specially calibrated and can be used for nothing else other than fluid warming or JCAHO will ding you on it...we have a warmer that keeps it warm with our blankets...We also have the level 1 infusers AKA Rangers to keep it warm while infusing...

[dunedain]

We have a small blanket warmer in the trauma room where we also keep NS and LR. We also date ours to two weeks out then have to pull them if they out date (which is rare) and dump them. We don't use our larger blanket warmer for heating IV sol'n because of overheating...the temp can't be regulated as easily...something to watch out for.

Same goes for our ED in so far as the level 1.

[RNinOZ]

Originally Posted by melanie19

The fluid warmer we use in our ED only heats to 37C, which isn't suitable for a hypothermic patient. Does anyone have any other suggestion? Is microwaving ok.

We have a Warmflo which heats up to 42 degrees, and an integrated fluid/blanket warmer.

[teeituptom]

We use both the Level1 and the hotline as needed.
Even just for dehydrated patients the hotline is so nice, when giving a 1 or 2 or even 3 liters wide open. Much more comfortable for the patients.