PLYMOUTH MEETING, PA--New infusion technologies can make hospitals safer for patients and staff. These technologies, such as dose error reduction systems (DERS), require extensive planning to implement. Organizing a diverse team, developing a drug library, and providing appropriate clinician training are essential to successful implementation. ECRI, an independent, nonprofit health services research agency, on May 17, 2006, will host an audio conference on implementing new infusion technologies, the second conference in the Roadmap to Patient Safety series.

Participants will learn how to institute safer infusion practices and use DERS data to better monitor quality improvement efforts, reduce programming errors, and enhance risk management. They will also benefit from hearing about the experiences of a hospital that implemented a DERS with wireless data transfer.

The May 17, 2006, audio conference, "Implementing Safer Infusion Technologies," will be held from 1:00 to 2:15 p.m. EDT (12:00 to 1:15 p.m. CDT; 11:00 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. MDT; 10:00 to 11:15 a.m. PDT). The audio conference will feature expert speakers who will discuss:
* Overview of the implementation process
* Common pitfalls and how to avoid them
* How and why to use the data from DERS logs

The registration fee is $139 for members of ECRI's SELECTplus^TM program, Health Devices System, Health Devices Gold, and Healthcare Risk Control System; the cost is $239 for nonmembers. The deadline for registration and payment is Friday, May 12, 2006. Visit www.ecri.org/audioconferences to register.

Conference recordings and course materials for "Implementing Safer Infusion Technologies," are also available for sale as a CD-ROM toolkit or Audio-only CD-ROM. For those who missed ECRI's previous audio conferences, "Endoscope Reprocessing Best Practices" (March 15, 2006), "Emergency Readiness: Technology Planning, Response, and Recovery" (November 17, 2005), "MRI Safety and Medical Devices" (September 21, 2005), "Radio-Frequency Identification for Tracking Medical Devices: Planning for Today and Tomorrow" (May 18, 2005), and "Electrosurgery and Patient Safety: Critical Measures for Minimizing Risk" (March 16, 2005), recordings with conference materials are still available for purchase.

To register for this audio conference, or to order conference recordings and materials from past seminars, contact ECRI by telephone at (610) 825-6000, ext. 5889; by e-mail at circulation2@ecri.org; by fax at (610) 834-0240; or by mail at 5200 Butler Pike, Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462-1298, USA.

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