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Rectal Temperature, Normal 100.2° F or Less.

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Subject: switchover from glass thermometers to electronic digital


Author:
rb
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Date Posted: Saturday, April 09, 2011, 06:18: pm
 Can anyone on this message board pinpoint a certain year when the transition was made from glass thermometers over to electronic digital in hospitals all across the USA?
Was it the 1970's or '80's?
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[> Subject: Re: switchover from glass thermometers to electronic digital


Author:
Nero
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Date Posted: Saturday, April 09, 2011, 07:16: pm
It wasn't that far back and it wasn't a matter where all hospitals, clinics, and offices, suddenly switched simultaneously. Patient volume, time-issues, costs, and probably skepticism of new technology all undoubtedly entered in. I can tell you I have some old medical supply catalogues. Mercury-in-glass thermometers were sold in the catalogue up through 2004. The 2005 catalogue was the first without glass thermometers.

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[> [> Subject: Re: switchover from glass thermometers to electronic digital


Author:
rb
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Date Posted: Saturday, April 09, 2011, 08:37: pm
Wow! 2005. That is recent. I would've figured the switch would've taken place at least no later than the '90's. That would go for even the most remotest small town medical clinics here in the US.

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[> Subject: Re: switchover from glass thermometers to electronic digital


Author:
Frank
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Date Posted: Sunday, April 10, 2011, 11:33: am
It was the mercury fill content that led the the demise of the glass fever thermometer. The EPA issued a warning about the dangers to the environment of discarded broken thermometers. Up to that point it was a matter of choice. The medical community is very trendy and I believe that medical practitioners that used them felt pressure to move on to electronic thermometers. At the same time there were programs to exchange mercury fill glass thermometers for cheap electronic types.

I am sure that there are still quite a few households and maybe some medical practices that still user mercury fill glass thermometers. It is not a topic that anyone would find in normal conversation.

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[> Subject: Re: switchover from glass thermometers to electronic digital


Author:
Catherine A.
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Date Posted: Monday, April 18, 2011, 08:52: pm
I was hospitalized in 1984 after being critically injured in a cycling accident. I remember thermometers in the hospital were digital/electronic. While I was on the rehab floor the last 10 days or so of my stay, nurses used hand-held thermometers with probes. In ICU (I don't recall much there) and following in CCU, thermometer probes were attached on long cords to vital signs monitoring units next to my bed.

Due to extensive facial surgery resulting in my jaw being wired, I was "introduced" to blue and red probes. At age 22, I didn't know the difference. Blue was for my underarm, red in my bottom during a period when I had an infection and was running a high fever.

When I returned home and had a visiting nurse who was a godsend in my recovery, she used an glass thermometer -- and it was rectal.

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[> Subject: Re: switchover from glass thermometers to electronic digital


Author:
Rich
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Date Posted: Tuesday, April 19, 2011, 11:17: am
The first electronic thermometers I remember were used in hospitals in the early 70's. The thermister and other RTD electronic devices were part of my electrical engineering experiences in the 60's. The classic thermocouple is much older than that. All that has changed is the advancement and lower cost of custom integrated circuits that give the intelligence to the control circuit in the digital thermometer. Similarly, facsimile has been used for wirephotos since the 30's, but the microprocessor gave life to the office fax machine in the 70's.

The electronic devices are as accurate as the mercury in glass instrument, much faster, easier to use, very rugged, safer chemically, but not very stimulating to the fetish cravings in any of us.

Rich

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[> Subject: Re: switchover from glass thermometers to electronic digital


Author:
Caleb76
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Date Posted: Friday, April 22, 2011, 12:33: am
I can remember having glass rectal thermometers used on me in the hospital when I was only 2 or 3,(1977 maybe), but I also remember seeing digitals used during an emergency room visit in 1980 or 1981. I guess most hospitals went to digital somewhere along the mid 70s to early 80s.

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[> Subject: Re: switchover from glass thermometers to electronic digital


Author:
crsofa
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Date Posted: Friday, April 22, 2011, 01:35: pm
I grew up in a military family and went to family clinic or hospitals on military bases. I was around 14 when they switched to the IVAC electronic thermometer with the blue and red probes. That would have been 82-83 ish. I was still getting rectal at the time and I can definitely remember the difference between those and the glass thermometers.

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