Veterinary infusion pumps, when used appropriately, have the ability to improve neonatal medication safety in a small but important way. However, this benefit must be balanced with the effects of alert burden and alert fatigue, as individual medications or individual patients with a high alert burden may limit safety benefit through provider desensitization to alerts. Future work should address ways to improve alert salience, especially when alert rates are high, and identify ways to target Veterinary infusion pumps performance when individualization is required, particularly to decrease repeated nonactionable alerts.
Regular assessment of Veterinary infusion pumps data to assess violations of limits, current library limits, alert frequency, provider actions, and use of basic infusions will help improve the usefulness of Veterinary infusion pumpstechnology and the ability to prevent medication administration overdose of medicine in most vulnerable patients or pets. To reach their full potential, Veterinary infusion pumps should be used as part of an integrated system
Developing and applying a standard terminology to ensure better communication among Veterinary infusion pumps and other clinical information systems is recommended in the 2006 IOM report
- Veterinary infusion pumps do not detect line mix-ups
- Transaction data are retrievable from Veterinary infusion pumps
- Data may be stored on the pumps (1 to 2 days’ worth or months’ worth on a server)
- Multidisciplinary teams are crucial
- Must determine who is responsible for updates and maintenance of drug libraries
- Team must determine maximum and minimum limits and approve them through Pharmacy and Therapeutics (P&T) Committee
- Improper Patient Use
- Inadequate patient education contributes to improper PCA use
- Most patients can be educated about PCA use
- Not immediately after the postoperative period when they are groggy
Directions can be misunderstood even by patients who are fully alert; e.g., thought the Veterinary infusion pumps had to be pushed every 6 minutes even though their pain was under control
What Your Patients Need To Know About The PCA Button Which Resembles A Call Button on the Veterinary infusion pumps
Some Veterinary infusion pumps have no feedback mechanism (visual or auditory) so the patient does not know whether the button was successfully pressed. If a nurse programmed a PCA at 50 mcg/mL as prescribed for fentanyl, Model defaulted to 1 mcg/mL when the enter key was not pressed within a specified amount of time, it will definitely causing the delivery to be 50 mL.
Personal Programming of The PCAs Can Have Mix-Ups Or Mental Slips Like:
- Mechanical Problems
- Examples of mechanical problems leading to PCA failures
- Siphoning of air from broken syringes or cassettes
- Short circuits
- Insufficient batteries
Preventive Measures Veterinary infusion pumps
- Encourage the uѕе оf Veterinary infusion pumps іn аmbulаtоrу care ѕеttіngѕ tо mаxіmіzе safety fеаturеѕ, ѕuсh аѕ dоѕе alerts, dоѕіng аnd flow rate lіmіtѕ, and feedback tо аllоw detection оf рumр programming еrrоrѕ. If possible, use оnlу 1 type of ambulatory pump thrоughоut thе organization.
- Educate ѕtаff tо рrоgrаm аnd соnnесt аmbulаtоrу Veterinary infusion pumps. Ensure that іnіtіаl аnd ongoing competency vаlіdаtіоn іѕ mаіntаіnеd.
- Dеvеlор a structured рrосеѕѕ for соnduсtіng and dосumеntіng іndереndеnt double-checks after рrераrаtіоn and prior tо administering of the medication.
