Figures
- Fig. 1—
a) Answers to the question “Who is in charge of the servicing and repair of ventilators in your centre?”, and b) centres answering that ventilator servicing was carried out by an external company, and c) answers to the question “How often is your equipment routinely serviced?” by country. Comp: ventilator company; Tech: hospital technical service; Other: other hospital department; Phys: physician in charge of patient; AT: Austria; BE: Belgium; DK: Denmark; FI: Finland; FR: France; DE: Germany; GR: Greece; IE: Ireland; IT: Italy; NL: the Netherlands; NO: Norway; PL: Poland; PT: Portugal; ES: Spain; SE: Sweden.
- Fig. 2—
Answers to the questions: a) “Are you regularly informed of any problems with HMV [home mechanical ventilation] by the person/company responsible for the maintenance of the equipment?”; b) “Are you regularly updated on the specific control/maintenance of the equipment performed by the person/company responsible?”; and c) “Can the person/company providing the ventilator change the model of ventilator without asking for your agreement?” by country. AT: Austria; BE: Belgium; DK: Denmark; FI: Finland; FR: France; DE: Germany; GR: Greece; IE: Ireland; IT: Italy; NL: the Netherlands; NO: Norway; PL: Poland; PT: Portugal; ES: Spain; SE: Sweden.
- Fig. 3—
a) Answers to the question “In the case that the patient detects or supposes a ventilator malfunction, to whom are they told to report it”, and b) centres answering that the patient is told to inform at least the physician in the case of supposed ventilator malfunction, and c) answers to the question “Have the patients written information about the cleaning and maintenance protocol of the equipment?”. Comp: ventilator company; Tech: hospital technical service; Phys: physician in charge of patient; Ther: respiratory therapist; Other: other hospital department; AT: Austria; BE: Belgium; DK: Denmark; FI: Finland; FR: France; DE: Germany; GR: Greece; IE: Ireland; IT: Italy; NL: the Netherlands; NO: Norway; PL: Poland; PT: Portugal; ES: Spain; SE: Sweden.
- Fig. 4—
Answers to the questions: a) “In the case of detecting a malfunction of the equipment, is there any written protocol to report this event?”; b) “Are you able to ask the person/company responsible to perform an extraordinary check/control of the equipment?”; c) “Do you assess that the patient or caregivers correctly follows the cleaning/maintenance of the equipment?”; and d) “Is there a checklist with the different quality control items relating to HMV (home mechanical ventilation) for each patient?”. AT: Austria; BE: Belgium; DK: Denmark; FI: Finland; FR: France; DE: Germany; GR: Greece; IE: Ireland; IT: Italy; NL: the Netherlands; NO: Norway; PL: Poland; PT: Portugal; ES: Spain; SE: Sweden.
- Fig. 5—
Answers to the questions: a) “Is there any Adverse Incident Centre or similar (at the local, regional or national level) for collecting, analysing, classifying and reporting problems with HMV (home mechanical ventilation)?”; and b) “Is there any HMV consumer association that you know of?”. AT: Austria; BE: Belgium; DK: Denmark; FI: Finland; FR: France; DE: Germany; GR: Greece; IE: Ireland; IT: Italy; NL: the Netherlands; NO: Norway; PL: Poland; PT: Portugal; ES: Spain; SE: Sweden.
Tables
- Table. 1—
Answers to the question“During regular ventilator servicing, for which functions is it checked that the ventilator settings are as prescribed?”
Yes % No % Not applicable % No answer % Alarms 72 4 7 17 Oxygen 55 10 14 21 Tidal volume 63 7 10 20 Minute volume 58 7 13 22 Inspiratory pressure 75 5 3 17 Expiratory pressure 72 6 4 18 Trigger sensitivity 67 8 7 18 Data are presented as percentages of centres.
- Table. 2—
Answers to the question“During regular ventilator servicing, for which ventilator functions is it checked that the machine responds to the settings appropriately?”
Yes % No % Not applicable % No answer % Alarms 73 3 5 19 Oxygen 47 9 19 25 Tidal volume 63 4 10 23 Minute volume 58 4 13 25 Inspiratory pressure 72 2 5 21 Expiratory pressure 68 4 6 22 Trigger sensitivity 63 6 8 23 Data are presented as percentages of centres.
- Table. 3—
Answers to the question“During the normal process of home ventilation, do you receive information on the following?”
Always % Often % Sometimes % Never % No answer % Change of ventilator 71 9 9 5 6 Change of interface 53 17 16 7 7 Minor incidents# 25 23 34 13 5 Major incidents¶ 61 19 11 4 5 Data are presented as percentages of centres. #: noise, vibration; ¶: arrest, malfunction.
