Errors that Cause Incorrect Blood Pressure Readings

While Measuring Blood Pressure with traditional BP machines in Hospitals or community health services, patients often get their blood pressure readings incorrect.

There are several reasons that cause incorrect Blood pressure readings. To ensure the best use of BP monitors, it's very helpful to have good knowledge about how the device works and also the likely sources of error which will affect readings. The most common BP measurement mistakes are:

1. Using Wrong Sized Cuff: The error that most healthcare practitioners such as doctors and nurses do when they measure a patient’s blood pressure is that either they choose the wrong size cuff or they don’t usually tighten the cuff properly. The cuff length should be more than 80% and less than 110% respectively of the patient’s arm circumference. If the cuff is too large or not tightened enough it will give falsely low readings, while an overly small cuff or tightened too much will provide readings that are falsely high. But in Hingmed DBP-01P the17cm-42cm cuff is automatically adjustable and with one click the cuff will adjust around the patient’s arm perfectly so there is no chance to worry about a loose or too tight cuff.

2. Incorrect Body Position: One of the most common errors patients or healthcare practitioners do while measuring their Blood pressure is that they position their limb incorrectly. If the limb position is not correct it causes false BP readings. Typically, 2mmHg error can be caused by each inch above or below the correct position. We must have to eliminate the influence of gravity to accurately assess the blood flow in an extremity. The standard way to maintain the correct body position is to keep the limb at the mid-heart level. Patients must sit in an upright position to provide the most accurate BP reading. It is recommended to sit quietly for a while before measuring blood pressure, keep your back straight, not put your weight on your arms, and relax the whole body. In Hingmed DBP-01P, the machine senses if the limb is in the right position and notifies the patients to put their limb in the correct position.

It is true that now a days, Digital BP monitors adjust their accuracy with traditional mercury BP machines. But for human error, it is risky to depend on traditional BP machines. And the best option to prevent human error is that we should use Automatic Blood pressure monitors such as Hingmed DBP-01P in every hospital and community health service as it has a wide range of arm size (17cm-42cm) that can be automatically tightened and loosen and keep create the accurate pressure on the arm so the reading will be correct. Also, it can measure the BP fast (22~25 seconds) and automatically with one click so there will be no human error and it will be very convenient for health practitioners.