Clinical implementation of automated O 2 titration in a tertiary care hospital.

Background: When treating acute respiratory failure, both hypoxemia and hyperoxemia should be avoided. SpO2 should be monitored closely and O2 flows adjusted accordingly. Achieving this goal might be easier with automated O2 titration compared to manual titration of fixed-flow O2 We evaluated the feasibility of using an automated O2 titration device in subjects treated for acute hypoxemic respiratory failure in a tertiary care hospital. Methods: Healthcare workers received education and training about oxygen therapy and were familiarized with an automated O2 titration device (FreeO2, Oxynov, Quebec City, Canada). A coordinator was available from 8 am to 5 pm during week days to provide technical assistance. The ability of the device to maintain SpO2 within the prescribed therapeutic window was recorded. Basic clinical information was recorded. Results: Subjects were enrolled from November 2020 to August 2022. We trained 508 healthcare workers on use of automated O2 titration which was finally used on 872 occasions in 763 subjects, distributed on the respiratory, COVID-19 and thoracic surgery wards and the emergency room. Clinical information could be retrieved for 609 (80%) subjects who were on the system for a median of 3 days (interquartile range: 2 to 6 days) representing 2567 subject-days of clinical experience with the device. In the 82 (14%) subjects for whom this information was available, the system maintained SpO2 within the prescribed targets 89% of the time. Ninety-six subjects experienced clinical deterioration as defined by the need to be transferred to the intensive care unit and/or requirement of high nasal flow oxygen but none of these events were judged to be related to the O2 device. Conclusions: Automated O2 titration could be successfully implemented in hospitalized subjects with hypoxemic respiratory failure from various causes. This experience should foster further improvement of the device and recommendations for an optimized utilization.