What pulse pressure is incompatible with life?
Our hospital stocks some really poor equipment and the BP readings that our automatic cuffs produce are often in the realm of improbability. Readings like 146/114. The usual outcome of this is either 1) the abnormal reading gets reported to me and I ask for a manual (up to 4-5 times a day) which is inevitably normal or 2) these questionable readings get put in the chart making the vital signs over the past 24 hours uninterpretable.
I'd like to just tell the staff ”if the difference between systolic and diastolic is less than ____ please don't chart it and please just get a manual, you don't have to ask me”.
Is there a specific cutoff that I should be recommending?