The county i did my internship with trusts the LP12 religiously. So much that ive never even seen anyone take a manual set of vitals. Sounds crazy right? Granted, i only rode with a handful of medics, but it seemed to be the norm.
The LifePak was always taken into a call, and was the first part of most treatment process'. I inquired to a couple of medics about what i had read regarding innacuracies and they were very confident that the BP, pulse, and pulse ox were always accurate.
Im not saying that these guys are special, they just seemed to be informed as if they had tested manual vs. LifePak and didnt see any real problems. Ive got to assume that the BP could be wrong due to many factors (tube length, the tube resting on the cot, a properly placed cuff).
I was just a student so i didnt want to criticize them, but it seems odd to me that no manual vitals were taken. Ive seen/taken some pulse rates manually and found that they were darn near spot on. Doesnt mean they dont have an issue though.
I think there is a much larger room for error when taking BPs, that is something that i will always do before hooking them up the LifePak.