by
Gus Iversen, Editor in Chief | May 14, 2015
From the May 2015 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
Jaime LaMontagne, VP of global product management for Infusion Therapies at Smiths Medical, a major manufacturer of infusion pumps, has witnessed the progress taking place with smart pumps. She says the move to wireless technology; enabling smart pumps to integrate with several other systems across the hospital, has made a huge difference.
Network connectivity not only expedites care, but also allows programmed guardrails to ensure patient safety. “Smart infusion systems are now equipped with medication error-prevention software that alerts users or interrupts the infusion process when a pump is programmed outside of preconfigured limits,” says LaMontagne.
But that does not mean smart pumps are foolproof. If a hospital is using agency nurses or a mix of pumps within the organization, different pump interfaces can create usability problems. For instance, one may have a lot of up and down arrow buttons on the front while another might have all buttons on the bottom right-hand corner. McGeath describes an informal study he participated in at Connectathon a couple of years ago. “I was there with three different pump manufacturers and we showed that manually programming a pump – the average between the vendors – took 27 button clicks on the face of the smart pump.” That means 27 opportunities to hit the wrong button.
“Research tells us that incorrect programming is the root cause of the majority of adverse medical events that occur in connection with infusion pumps,” says Julie Sawyer Montgomery, VP of global marketing and sales for Hospira Medical Devices, a leader among infusion pump manufacturers.
To safely leverage the power of smart pumps, software needs to be established that integrates with the medical record, adheres to best practice protocols, and closes the loop on self-checking and automation. As of fall 2014, McGeath says only nine hospitals in North America were fully integrating their pumps with the EHR – progress has been slow but momentum is building.
Closing the loop
Clinicians can use the touch pad on the pump to select what drug they are administering, and if they go outside those guardrails (“fat fingering,” or a mistake) then the pump will automatically reject the command.
But guardrails don’t matter if the pump is filled with the wrong medication to begin with. That’s why the industry is coming together around the need to integrate smart pumps with the EHR and close the loop entirely.
In February, Smiths Medical launched an interoperable version of their PharmGuard Infusion Management software to achieve that goal. With it, their Medfusion 4000 pumps can communicate with the EHR through IHE PCD (Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise Patient Care Domain) profiles.
