Save Gas Money
with the MaxBlend 2 and its innovative bleed control switch
What is “gas bleed” when referring to air-oxygen blenders?
Air-oxygen blenders used in respiratory care “bleed” gas in an effort to maintain FiO2 prescription accuracy when delivering low flows. As long as a blender is connected to oxygen and air gas sources, it will bleed when idle and when in use on a patient.
With low flow blenders, this bleed rate can be as high as 3 LPM, and with high flow blenders, it can be as high as 15 LPM.
Example:
A clinician is delivering 4 LPM of FiO2 to a patient with a low flow blender. During this time, an additional 1 LPM of blended gas might be lost to gas bleed. When the patient is done being treated and they are no longer connected to the oxygen delivery set-up, the blender will continue to bleed gas at a rate of up to 1 LPM (assuming oxygen and air gas sources stay connected to the blender). This means there is a gas bleed even when the blender is not in use.
What is the downside of gas bleed?
Medical oxygen can be expensive. Any time blenders bleed, a portion of gas might be wasted and this cost can add up over time.
If a gas bleed is necessary in order for air-oxygen blenders to maintain accuracy when delivering oxygen to patients, is there anything that can be done to save on costs?
Even though gas bleed is necessary to maintain accuracy when delivering low flows during oxygen delivery, Maxtec wanted to find a way to better manage this gas bleed to avoid wasting gas when possible.
This is why a gas bleed savings mechanism was incorporated into the design of the MaxBlend family – to save healthcare facilities money and resources from wasted oxygen.
The bleed control switch allows clinicians to maintain accuracy but to save wasted gas by turning off the gas bleed in the following instances:
When using a low flow (0-3 LPM, 0-15 LPM, or 0-30 LPM) MaxBlend:
- Bleed control switch should be switched to <3 LPM when delivering flows less than 3 LPM and when blender is not in use.
- Bleed control switch should be switched to >3 LPM when delivering flows greater than 3 LPM.
When using a high flow (0-70 LPM) MaxBlend:
- Bleed control switch should be switched to <15 LPM when delivering flows less than 15 LPM and when blender is not in use.
- Bleed control switch should be switched to >15 LPM when delivering flows greater than 15 LPM.
What if the clinician forgets to switch the bleed control switch to the right setting during patient care?
If a clinician does not use the gas bleed switch in the instances mentioned above, they might waste more gas than necessary but they do not need to worry about patient care being disrupted. The MaxBlend monitor will remain accurate regardless of gas bleed switch usage (as long as it is calibrated correctly).
See how much you can save
Use the calculator below to see how much your facility might save in the cost of wasted gas by using the MaxBlend 2 compared to using industry-standard blenders.
