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Make the Comparison. The Puritan Bennett™ 840 Versus the Puritan Bennett™ 980 Ventilators

Comparing the Puritan Bennett™ 840 vs. the Puritan Bennet™ 980 Ventilators

Considering an upgrade from the Puritan Bennett™ 840 ventilator to the Puritan Bennett™ 980 ventilator? Or evaluating the ventilators for the first time? Compare the two so you can understand some important differences — and make the right decision for your hospital.

The Puritan Bennett™ 980 ventilator offers advanced technologies that aren’t available on the Puritan Bennett™ 840 ventilator including enhancements in:

  • Safety
  • Configurability/user interaction
  • Hardware design elements

This information can help you create your evaluation checklist.

Related: Can a ventilator filter choice help protect clinicians from contagious respiratory pathogens? See the lessons learned from two Canadian hospitals managing viral outbreaks.

Safety Considerations

When a patient is on a ventilator, the goal is to maintain the highest degree of ventilation that can be safely delivered. Certain safety features — like backup ventilation and the alarm system — help maintain this high standard.

The Puritan Bennett™ 980 ventilator series include ventilator assurance. This means if certain elements of the system fail, the Puritan Bennett™ 980 ventilator continues to deliver ventilatory support as close to the preset settings as feasible.

To put the Puritan Bennett™ 840 ventilator into standby, you must turn it off, then back on. The Puritan Bennett™ 980 ventilator allows you to put the ventilator on standby without having to turn the device off and on.

An alarm that increases volume over time is a priority for places like the ICU. One reason could be closed glass doors. And if clinicians are down the hall when a patient disconnects from the ventilator, they may not hear the alarm. The Puritan Bennett™ 980 ventilator elevates its decibel level at 30 seconds and again at 60 seconds automatically with an alarm that has not been responded to if the set volume is lower than the maximum setting. The Puritan Bennett™ 840 alarm has a set volume that doesn’t change automatically to alarms that have not been responded to.

Related: Click here to learn more about the enhanced Puritan Bennett™ 980 ventilator.

Ventilator Configurability and User Interaction

Clinicians tell us that configurability is a top priority. The Puritan Bennett™ 980 ventilator touch screen works like a smartphone, offering the ability to swipe, tap, drag and drop, touch and hold, pull out, pull down, and the hot link is designed to simplify configuration and use. The Puritan Bennett™ 840 offers fewer options for selecting views, it’s not configurable, and it doesn’t provide data monitoring or graphics.

The Puritan Bennett™ 980 ventilator offers:

  • Navigation. Double tap on any one of the tabs in the top row for drop downs that you can scroll through and make patient data monitoring selections. You can also drag and drop the yellow icon and drop it on areas of the screen. You will see pop-up tool tips with definitions, parameters and product/setup details.
  • Configurability. Generally, a hospital locks in certain presets but enables clinicians to make changes. This flexibility is designed to better support your protocols, training, and patient-focused care delivery.
  • Patient data monitoring and graphics. There are five presets for patient data. Waveform views allow a historical look back of up to one minute of data so you can quickly check something unusual. Double tap the screen to zoom in for a maximized screen view.

An interface design can either speed up or slow down workflow. The Puritan Bennett™ 980 ventilator has automated tools for tasks like changing presets — which are designed to help save clinician time.

Related: See how easy it is to configure the Puritan Bennett™ 980 ventilator. Watch a clinician use the touch screen controls

Hardware Design Differences

The Puritan Bennett™ 980 ventilators offer numerous improvements on physical design. Some examples of enhancements include:

  • Battery powered compressor. This increases opportunities to transport and mobilize patients within your healthcare facility. When it is important to get patients up and walking in the ICU, for example, the ventilator can go with them.
  • Screen mobility. The Puritan Bennett™ 980 ventilator’s 15-inch screen rotates 170 degrees about a vertical axis in either direction (creating 350 degrees of visibility) and can be tilted up to 45 degrees from vertical to allow for better viewing of both content and alarms. The Omnidirectional LED above the screen — on both the front and back — flashes to alert staff to alarms. The screen on the Puritan Bennett™ 840 ventilator does not swivel as far, and it has no dome light. It provides visual alarms on the front side, which are not visible when standing behind the Puritan Bennett™ 840 ventilator.
  • Secondary status display screen. If the main screen on the Puritan Bennett™ 980 ventilator malfunctions, a secondary screen conveys battery status, gas status, pressure delivery, and other vital information. The Puritan Bennett™ 840 ventilator does not have a secondary display, nor do many competitor ventilators.

There are many factors that distinguish the Puritan BennettTM  980 to the 840 in regard to ventilator safety, configurability, user interaction, and hardware features. The Puritan Bennett™ 840 and 980 ventilation systems are designed to promote more natural breathing— and help improve patient comfort.1

Related: The Puritan Bennett™ 980 ventilator is designed with some of the most innovative breath-delivery technology. See why it’s described as simple, smart, and safe.

Compared to conventional mechanical ventilation (VC, VC+, PC, PS).

Reference:
1. Grasso S, Puntillo F, Mascia L, et al. Compensation for increase in respiratory workload during mechanical ventilation. Pressure-support versus proportional-assist ventilation. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2000;161(3 Pt 1):819–26.

TOPIC: Puritan Bennett™ 980 VentilatorIntensive Care

About the Author

Gary Milne is the Clinical and Technical Director of Ventilation. He has been with Medtronic for 25 years and has been a clinical lead for much of his career. He holds twelve patents on ventilator design and a bachelor of science in respiratory therapy from Indiana University.

Profile Photo of Gary Milne