Differences in Automated and Manual Blood Pressure Measurement in Hospitalized Psychiatric Patients

: Few studies have been conducted recently with noncritically ill patients evaluating commonly used automated blood pressure (BP) devices. The purpose of this study was to compare BP values obtained using a manual sphygmomanometer versus an oscillometric automated electronic BP device on an acute care psychiatry unit. A method-comparison design was used, and data were analyzed using the Bland-Altman method. Outliers were removed, resulting in 39 participants for analyses of systolic readings and 41 participants for diastolic readings. Paired t tests revealed a significant difference in manual versus automatic systolic BP readings (p < 0.05). Automated readings averaged 3.9 points higher. No significant differences in diastolic readings (p = 0.72) were found. Care must be taken in using automated or manual BP readings to make important clinical decisions. Based on these findings, a protocol was instituted in an acute care psychiatry unit indicating that BP must be measured manually for patients with medication-hold parameters for BP.