Venous blood gases for oxygenation status.

Hi everyone, 16 year vet here in Los Angeles California. I’ve worked in Adults, peds, and NICU, mostly NICU for the last 15 years, but latelt I have been doing adults to help out due to staffing shortages. Anyways, I’ve noticed in the past console of months that some MD’s have been ordering VBG’s to check for oxygenation issues. I’ve come across a few ER Md’s about it and they claim it’s just as accurate? I find that hard to believe but am I missing something? I’ve never used a VBG on a neo, peds, nor an adult to check for oxygenation issues status. In one case, I mentioned to a doc that the PF ratio for a pt in the ER was only possible with an ABG.

Unless there a new school of thought with evidence base research, I feel like VbG’s aren’t for checking aren’t accurate for this.

Is anyone else experiencing this and if you have more information on something that I don’t know, I would appreciate some knowledge on it.

My coworkers are just as confused as me btw. Thanks!