A patient’s temperature is a critical vital sign that may be
used by Emergency Department (ED) clinicians to determine the degree of illness and the need for further assessment and intervention. Accurate body temperature
measurement in the ED is necessary for the timely detec-tion and management of fever or hypothermia ; as well as
evaluating treatment effectiveness ( Crawford, Hicks, &
Thompson , 2006; Sund - Levander & Grodzinsky, 200 9) .
Pulmonary artery (PA) temperature is c onsidered the
“gold ” standard for measuring core body temperature (Fulbrook, 1993), as mixed venous blood temperature reflects
thermoregulation by the hypothalamus. Other invasive
methods include esophageal, rectal and bladder measurements. Rectal temprature is considered the least invasive
among these invasive temperature measures , and often is
assumed to approximate core temperature ( Fulbrook,
1993).