You will be seeing a new glucose meter on your ambulance in the next week. We decided to evaluate a new meter for several reasons and found the following differences:
a). Current meter takes 20 seconds to produce glucose result, Contour (new meter) takes only 5 seconds, Blood sample can be obtained from a capillary or venous site.
b). Current meter requires a code strip (to calibrate) and it must be checked regularly, Contour doesn’t require any type of coding or calibrating of the meter before the strips are added.
c). Current meter hi/low display is 500-20 range, Contour blood glucose range is 600 -10 range
The cost are the same between the meters. We believe after the field test, and the differences noted above the Contour meter will better fit our needs.
It functions the same as the old with the exceptions of.
1. No need to calibrate
2. The strips are stored in a small bottle and not packaged individually
NOTE- venous blood or capillary blood is acceptable to this unit
