Nihon Kohden Launches NK-HealthProtect Patient Triage Solution

Nihon Kohden, a U.S. market leader in precision medical products and services, has launched its NK-HealthProtect Patient Triage Solution, a complete kit that includes tools necessary to help evaluate patients potentially suffering from COVID-19. The principal component of the kit is Nihon Kohden’s Life Scope SVM-7200 vital signs monitor, which allows healthcare practitioners to quickly and easily measure three vital signs key to COVID-19 screenings (temperature, blood oxygen, and blood pressure).
 
NK-HealthProtect is Nihon Kohden’s line of advanced feature and product configurations designed to help healthcare providers during a public health threat.
 
“Screening has become an essential part of identifying patients who might have COVID-19, and being able to quickly triage patients is critical to alleviate overcrowding in emergency departments,” said Genoveffa Devers DNP, MSHA, RN, CPHQ, vice president of clinical and strategic alliances at Nihon Kohden. “We designed the NK-HealthProtect Patient Triage Solution to help healthcare providers address these needs during the pandemic and beyond.”
 
Many facilities have been using temperature for several weeks now to identify people who might be infected with COVID-19. SpO₂ has been identified as an important screening toolⁱ as clinicians have found that some patients have extremely low blood-oxygen levels but do not appear to have trouble breathing.ⁱⁱ
 
The NK-HealthProtect Patient Triage Solution includes a roll stand for easy transportation, a temporal thermometer, and disposable SpO₂ finger sensors and thermometer caps to avoid cross-contamination. It also comes with a reusable SpO₂ finger sensor and patient cable, a blood pressure hose and reusable blood pressure cuffs. Optional disposable cuffs are available upon request.
 
The monitor offers an intuitive user interface with touch screen, as well as customizable early warning scoring that helps clinicians identify patients who are deteriorating or at risk of deteriorating. If an at-risk patient is identified, the vital signs monitor can be easily converted to continuous monitoring mode for viewing of vitals within the Nihon Kohden Patient Monitoring System.
 
Each kit comes in a hard-shell transport case for easy storage and to protect the monitor and accessories.

References 
ⁱ Clinical management of severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) when COVID-19 disease is suspected. Interim Guidance, 13 March 2020. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/clinical-management-of-novel-cov.pdf (accessed April 27, 2020)
ⁱⁱ Gattinoni L. et al. COVID-19 pneumonia: different respiratory treatment for different phenotypes? (2020) Intensive Care Medicine; DOI: 10.1007/s00134-020-06033-2