Infusion Systems Safety Initiative
Infusion pumps are one of the most widely used technologies in healthcare today. But infusion errors and pump failures can and have caused serious harm, and even death, to patients. Over a five-year period, more than 56,000 adverse events and 710 deaths associated with infusion devices were reported to FDA—more than for any other medical technology. During this period, there were 87 pump recalls.
To address these issues, AAMI and FDA partnered to host a summit in October 2010. The even facilitated extensive discussion between key stakeholders in order to set a clear direction for improving infusion systems safety. Today, under the HTSI umbrella, more than 100 committed individuals are continuing to pursue the ideas generated at that summit in pursuit of the goal that "no patient will be harmed by healthcare technology."
The challenges and actions are contained in the summit report, "Infusing Patients Safely: Priority Issues from the AAMI/FDA Infusion Device Summit."
Wanted: Infusion Systems Safety Ideas
What projects has your healthcare organization undertaken to improve infusion systems safety? We want to hear about them! Send us a brief description of your project no later than June 15, 2012. For details, click here.