Scope of the Problem

Wouldn't it be great if all medical devices in a hospital could be integrated with their electronic health record system? Such as IV infusion pumps?

From personal experience, since IV infusion pumps do not directly communicate with the record system, many times the medication administration activity recorded in the electronic health records is not completely accurate. If all of the information of an infusion can be carried over, the medication administration can be accurately tracked. When it is not accurately tracked, it can lead to infusion and medication errors. IV medications are twice as likely to result in errors that cause patient harm (Biltoft & Finneman, 2018). Even though some medication errors are related to poor clinical practice, some argue that some are related to technology, specifically the usability of the infusion pump interface,and that a smart pump design should be able to allow nurses to do the right thing, take the right action, and use the pump correctly (Harrington, 2018). Since the IV pumps at my workplace do not communicate with the patient's health record, there is more risk for medication errors, incomplete documentation, and incorrect infusion management. Currently, nurses at my organization have to electronically sign the medication administration and infuse the ordered medication. This intervention can create a burdensome process for the nurse and limits the time they have for other clinical duties and also creates a higher risk for errors (Landi, 2018). Another issue that I have encountered is the alarms of the pump. When the pumps are alarming, many times it is the patient who hears the alarm, and then has to use their call bell to notify the nurse. What if the IV pump would just automatically pick up the alarm and alert the nurse directly through the electronic health record and to her already-integrated hand-held mobile device? In my opinion, this would be so lovely.