Hospitals in pursuit of excellence

Appropriate Sedation of Ventilator Patients

Rome Memorial Hospital began this project as a prelude to developing a progressive mobility program. The critical care literature of the past decade emphasized the importance of lighter sedation for ventilator patients. Rome Memorial Hospital was using the Ramsey sedation scale and received numerous comments from the medical staff that the patients seemed over sedated during morning rounds. The predominant method of sedation of ventilator patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) is continuous protocol infusion.