[Assessment of the usefulness to use a software supervising continuous infusion rates of drugs administered with pumps in ICU and estimation of the frequency of rate of administration errors]

Abstract

Objectives: To assess the usefulness and the feasibility to use a software supervising continuous infusion rates of drugs administered with pumps in ICU.

Study design: Follow-up of practices and inquiry in three intensive care units.

Material: Guardrails software(TM) of reassurance of the regulations of the rates of pumps (AsenaGH, Alaris).

Methods: First, evaluation and quantification of the number of infusion-rates adjustments reaching the maximal superior limit (considered as infusion-rate-errors stopped by the software). Secondly, appreciate the acceptance by staffs to such a system by a blinded questionnaire and a quantification of the number of dataset pumps programs performed with the software.

Results: The number of administrations started with the pumps of the study in the three services (11 beds) during the period of study was 63,069 and 42,694 of them (67.7 %) used the software. The number of potential errors of continuous infusion rates was 11, corresponding to a rate of infusion-rate errors of 26/100,000. KCl and insulin were concerned in two and five cases, respectively. Eighty percent of the nurses estimated that infusion-rate-errors were rare or exceptional but potentially harmful. Indeed, they considered that software supervising the continuous infusion rates of pumps could improve safety.

Conclusion: The risk of infusion-rate-errors of drugs administered continuously with pump in ICU is rare but potentially harmful. A software that controlled the continuous infusion rates could be useful.