Can anybody comments about Esprit ventilator manufactured by Respironics.
Its user friendly with good respiratory mechanics package....
We are planning to go for one in our setup.
Please let us know whether to rethink on this..

Anybody has new protocols on weaning???

Steve:

I have not used the Esprit in the clinical setting. I have seen the inside of the ventilator and tested it as compared to other ventilators. The user interface is easy and the ability to use BIPAP is great as well. I was not impressed with how this ventilator is constructed. The major issue is no active exhalation valve. An active exhalation valve is ideal to keep people breathing spontaneously and facilitate the ventilation system to meet the patient's flow demand. I am not sure what your setup is going to be but I would suggest a comparison to a couple of other lower priced ventilators. I would not purchase a ventilator without an active exhalation valve. I have not looked at the Esprit in a few years so I could not comment on the Resp. Mechanics. The strength of the Esprit is the company. Sometimes, this is enough of a reason to buy a particular product.

All the best in your decision,

Bruce
mcleanbr@msn.com

I would check some resources before making this purchase especially if you plan to use it as a critical care vent. All those bells and whistles are sometimes fluff to hide what is really there

I would check on some resources espcecially if you are going to use this as a critical care ventilator.

Steve,
First thanks for joining. Welcome. There are some other threads here that will probably give you a little insight on some opinions on the Esprit. I am quite sure there are many very satisfied users of these vents out there. They are supposed to be pretty easy to learn and should do fine for the majority of your cases. They are short on some features when you put them head to head against some of the other manufacturer's top of the line machines. What I have gotten from Respironics people on this is that these features are bells and whistles that haven't been proven to alter end outcomes. You will probably find many that feel that the additional tools come in handy and others who don't. I have minimal experience with the machine in clinical practice so I will leave any further comment to some who might have some likes or dislikes for you.

As to a protocol, what is you are needing from a weaning protocol? A protocol for rapid wean of a post op patient would probably look a little different than one for weaning the long term vent patient. The following link has a couple of presentations on weaning, including the STEER protocolUCSD Presentations. I will Email you a protocol with instructions that I wrote several years ago that is very effective for difficult to wean patients. Any others interested in this protocol can Email me at gary@ventworld.com

Thank you all for the suggestion.
I checked up with the sales people of Respironics regarding the exhalation valve. What they said was the feature called flow trak will address this problem. This feature allows the patient to draw extra flow without flow starvation. They claims that the blower is designed in such a way that it can deliver upto 200LPM flow.
The main thing which I liked in the system was the user interace which BMac also has commented.
I will just check up with few more ventilators

have your Biomed pull an ECRI report

Ofcourse the rep said that. Hard to believe but you can't always rely on what the rep says. do your own research and Nightrt is absolutely correct...read the ECRI report. Plus the blower is extremely expensive and needs to be replaced often. This has been my experience.

Email me at gary@ventworld.com and I will reply with the ECRI report on request. Respironics folks I have spoken with about this report offer that we balance this report with research on MD Buyline. I inquired about getting access to their reports for VentWorld. Here is the response I recieved:

Gary,

MD Buyline membership is based on an annual fee that varies depending
on the organization size and term of the agreement selected. Some of
the features include unlimited online access to our databases for
customer satisfaction ratings, vendor rankings, hospital budgeting and
purchasing trends, product overviews, product and service pricing
information, RFP templates, and win/loss analysis information. On our
website at www.MDBuyline.com under Benefits of Membership you will find
links to examples of some of the types of services.


Our standard pricing is as follows:

Corporate Membership (this is for large multidivisional companies)

1 year agreement - $75,000 Plus $7,000 per division/year
3 year agreement - $70,000 Plus $7,000 per division/year
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Mike


Mike Clemens
Executive Vice President
MD Buyline
520-207-0867
mike.clemens@mdbuyline.com

What a deal for someone I am sure.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: GaryMefford,

Steve,
I would rethink and create a "Needs/Wants list for your facility and then match it up with what is on the market.
Include annual maintenence and contract costs. Also trial it on patients and staff to ensure that whatever you decide on meets the needs of the patients.