Smart Infusion Pumps

There are no two ways about it: smart infusion pumps have transformed the dosage delivery system by reducing errors and improving patient care. However, clinicians and nurses are crucial in making critical decisions, monitoring the systems, and managing drug libraries.

It is vital that healthcare professionals have the most comprehensive expert guidance possible. ASHP's updated Smart Infusion Pumps: Implementation, Management, and Drug Libraries, Second Edition, puts it all at your fingertips.

Written by Pamela K. Phelps, with contributions from 14 other experts, it is the core handbook for selecting, implementing, and operating this essential medical technology, covering every aspect of infusion pump management, including guidance for their growing use in patient home care.

Updated and expanded, with practice tips, charts, checklists, scenarios, and more, the second edition details procedures that ensure efficiency, effectiveness, and patient safety.

Inside this edition, you'll find: 

• 8 updated and 5 new chapters
• Key terms
• Practice tips
• References

An expanded drug library for general and pediatric use, and patient-controlled analgesia.

As the essential guide for anybody who works with smart infusion pumps, you'll want to have one for each member of your team.

Pamela K. Phelps, PharmD, FASHP

Pamela K. Phelps is Director of Pharmacy at Fairview Health Services. Dr. Phelps earned her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Minnesota. 

She served as Vice Chair of the ASHP Council on Therapeutics, a member of the ASHP Section of Pharmacy Practice Managers, and the ASHP Advisory Council on the Pharmacy Forecast Strategic Planning publication. In the past, Dr. Phelps has served as a member of the ASHP Task Force on Accountable Care Organizations, a member of the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) Foundations Medical Device Safety Council, the Chair of the University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC) Research and Education Committee, a member of the UHC Pharmacy Council Executive Committee, and President of the Minnesota Society of Health-System Pharmacists. Her professional focus is to expand the clinical role of hospital pharmacists to meet the medication and learning needs of patients. Dr. Phelps received Fellowship recognition from ASHP in 2004. She has 26 national publications, including as editor of both editions of a book on smart pumps (2016), and 48 invited presentations. 

The Pharmaceutical Journal 9 AUG 2017

By Laurence A. Goldberg

Over the past 20 years, the technology of parenteral drug administration has moved from devices that calculate infusion rates by counting the number of drops per minute, to ones that will read barcodes on the drug containers, calculate and programme the infusion rates on the devices and send usage data wirelessly. Infusion pumps have transformed accurate dosage delivery by reducing errors and improving patient safety. However, although many hospitals now use smart pump technology, compliance with the software and the use of the many safety attributes are variable.

This book takes the readers from justifying the need for smart pump technology, through choosing the appropriate pump, to the implementation of the new technology. In addition, several chapters outline the issues relating to setting up drug libraries. The book defines a drug library as a comprehensive list of medicines and fluids that are to be delivered using the infusion pump. The library includes details of any dose, volume or flow rate limitations that are programmed into the software. One chapter deals with the steps to be followed in building up a general drug library while others consider the development of specialist drug libraries such as those for patient-controlled analgesia and pediatrics. A dedicated paediatric library is required because of higher risk, weight-based dosing, different infusion concentrations, smaller volumes and different types of pumps.

Chapters new to this edition include the development of an epidural and intrathecal drug library, and an oncology drug library.

One of the most valuable features of an intelligent infusion system is the reports that are produced by the software. A wealth of valuable information on how the pumps have been used, which drugs have been administered most often and which doses have been overridden is generated. A brief chapter on monitoring quality and pump utilisation makes several recommendations, such as identifying a reports manager. Another chapter offers a series of ‘go-live’ checklists, such as a biomedical services checklist, sterile services checklist and supply chain/inventory checklist. Finally, smart pump integration with electronic health records through wireless connectivity is discussed.

A useful tool found at the end of each chapter is the practice tips. They are concise, practical and applicable to most settings.

A large general drug library published with permission from Fairview Health Services, Minneapolis, Minnesota, is provided, as an appendix, for demonstration purposes. The list of drugs is divided into those that are to be administered by continuous intravenous infusion and those to be given by bolus injection.

The book is well written, in an easy-to-digest format, with helpful and practical information in each chapter. It is essential reading for any organisation that uses or hopes to introduce smart pump technology.