Blood Pressure Monitors

One important part of triage and any office consultation is measuring and tracking the patient’s blood pressure using a blood pressure monitor. Anyone who has ever learned the old fashioned way with a cuff and dial or column and a stethoscope knows this can be difficult to learn to do accurately and very hard to do on yourself.

Blood pressure monitors are accurate devices and can be useful and thrifty. The mercury type is more accurate, but these are being phased out because of the risks from mercury.

If you must use the stethoscope and cuff method, practice with a health care professional to be sure what you are doing really gets an accurate reading. Other electronic monitors can range new from $35 and up, and quality does usually cost more. Some are completely automatic and others require that you pump the cuff up or do some other tasks. Choose carefully if you want a fully automatic reading. Blood pressure monitors are made to be used on the upper arm, the forearm, the wrist and even sometimes a finger. Larger cuffs can be used with some meters for the thigh. People with certain medical conditions may not be allowed to use the arm.

You must use a cuff that is exactly the right size for your patient’s arm, since too large or too small will give a false reading. There should be markings on the cuff to show what is within the allowed range. Special size smaller and larger cuffs will normally cost extra and may need to be special ordered, so always try blood pressure monitors out before buying if you can. Pediatric and Neonatal cuffs are also available, though not all machines can measure cuffs that small.