[Intravenous drugs infusion safety through smart pumps].

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the role of smart infusion pumps in reducing errors related with the administration of intravenous medications.

METHOD: Retrospective, observational study analyzing the implementation of a system with smart intravenous infusion pumps (Hospira MedNetTM) and the role of the safety system for the detection of errors during the administration of drugs, sera, and blood. We included infusions administered at the day-care hospitals of hematology, oncology, rheumatology, and oncopediatrics. We analyzed adherence to the safety system, the number of programming errors detected, the commonly implicated drugs in these errors, and improvement actions.

RESULTS: During the study period, 120 smart pumps were implemented and data on 70,028 infusions were gathered. The rate of adherence to the safety program was 62.30% in hematology (6,887 infusions), 60,30% in oncology (28,127 infusions), 46,50% in rheumatology (1,950 infusions) and 1.8% in oncopediatrics (139 infusions). 3,481 out of the established limits programming alerts were generated by the pumps: 2,716 of relative limit and 765 of absolute limit. En 807 infusions (2.17%), errors that could have had consequences for the patients could be prevented. These findings allowed implementing a series of strategies aimed at minimizing these errors in the future.

CONCLUSIONS: The Hospira MedNetTM system detects deviations from the established protocols of intravenous infusion, preventing in this way potential adverse events for the patients. It also allows establishing correction measures and implementing the improvement strategies.