You are working with an outpatient who needs to go home on an "E" cylinder. She is wearing a nasal cannula at 2 L/min, and her cylinder has 1,500 psi remaining. She needs to travel by car one and one-half hours to reach her home and her concentrator. Can she make it?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

To calculate if the patient can make it, we need to determine how many hours of oxygen the patient has left in their E cylinder. 
First, we need to find out the flow rate in liters per minute (L/min) that the tank is dispensing at. For an E cylinder, the flow rate is approximately 0.3 L/min. 
Next, we use the following formula to determine how many hours of oxygen are left in the tank: 
(PSI remaining in tank x tank factor)/flow rate = remaining time in hours 
In this case, using the tank factor for an E cylinder (0.28), we get: 
(1,500 psi x 0.28)/0.3 L/min = 1,400 minutes or 23.3 hours 
The patient needs oxygen for 1.5 hours, which is less than the remaining time in the tank. Therefore, the patient can make it home on the E cylinder.

You Are Working with an Outpatient Who Needs to Go