Smart infusion

May 29, 2008

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Linda Murdoch and Victoria Cameron from St George’s hospital, London, UK have recently published a smart infusion technology article in the British Journal of Nursing.

Murdoch L.J. and Cameron V.L. (2008) Smart infusion technology: a minimum safety standard for intensive care? British Journal of Nursing. 17(10), p.630-636.

Abstract:

“There is overwhelming evidence that medication errors present a risk to patients. This risk is highest in the intensive care unit (ICU) setting and even greater when medications are administered via an infusion pump. Standard pumps will not alert for, or prevent, drug calculation, drug unit, button push, or multiple of ten errors when medication delivery data is inputted. However, the literature suggests that smart pumps programmed with hard (unchangeable) limits can significantly reduce drug errors at the point of administration. Staff at St George’s Hospital paediatric ICU wanted to implement an infusion pump system that would be immediately effective in reducing medication errors at the point of administration. This article presents an overview of the relevant literature together with clinical examples from the author’s’ ICU, which demonstrates their experiences with smart pumps. It is the authors’ firm belief that smart infusion technology sets a new minimum safety standard for intensive care” (Murdoch and Cameron 2008).