Re: Suction Equipment in Resp Arrest Originally Posted by vh1817 
I have recently become a member of a Code Team and have experienced multiple occasions where the wall suction was not available during a resp/full arrest. The physicians are never satisfied with the portable machine (suction is too weak) and wall suction has to be set up. The situations are always chaotic, crowded and it seems to take forever to find the suction equipment and get it going. Ideally, suction would be available in every room but that is not going to happen. I requested putting a regulator and suction setup in the bottom of each crash cart---but was told this was too expensive (huge hospital with multiple carts). Does anyone have any ideas, past experience, solutions to this problem that would be feasible, user-friendly as well as cost effective?
I'm confused: are wall units available at all? You mention having to go and set up wall suction so I'm guessing yes but you say that suction in every room isn't going to happen. Sorry, it's 4am and my mind has taken a break.
If it is available, then you need to communicate with NM that the floor needs to routinely check if the proper equipment is there and ready to go. As an aide, I do this every shift I work. I take everything you might need in a code (besides the crash cart
), such as O2 tubing, suction canisters, suction tubing, CPR masks, etc on a cart and push it from room to room. Waaay too much time is wasted looking for something that should be there in a code.
If wall suction isn't possible then I would go up the chain of command and present your problem, concerns, and solution. Go to the dr's and talk to them. Maybe then management will see that it's just not you.
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