Intravenous medication harm index system

• US 20050224083A1
• Filed: 12/19/2003
• Published: 10/13/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Carefusion 303 Incorporated (Becton Dickinson & Co)
• Original Assignee: Carefusion 303 Incorporated (Becton Dickinson & Co)
• Inventors: Vanderveen, Timothy W., Crass, Richard E.
• Granted Patent: US 7,657,443 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 128/897
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/17 delivered via infusion or injection
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/30 for calculating health indices; for individual health risk assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 70/40 relating to drugs, e.g. their side effects or intended usage

Abstract

A system and method for assessing the severity of medication errors associated with intravenous administration is provided. A harm index database includes harm index values for various parameters of medication administration. A medication administration device may access this database and assess the overall harm index for particular errors in order to provide appropriate alerts based on the severity of the error. Further, assessment of the harm index value may be used retrospectively to provide reports of event logs that include an overall harm index value associated with each alert.

Claims

1. A system for assessing the severity of medication errors associated with delivering medication to a patient, comprising:

a first memory in which is stored a harm index database, the harm index database including harm index values associated with various medication errors, the harm index values representing the severity of the medication errors;

a second memory in which is stored a log of medication errors;

a processor operatively connected to the first and second memories and configured to determine an overall harm index value for each medication error in the log based on the harm index values stored in the harm index database associated with the medication errors; and

means for reporting the overall harm index value for each medication error to a user.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

at least one patient care device for delivering medication to a patient for providing the log of medication errors; and

means for communicating the log of medication errors to the second memory.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the harm index database further includes a plurality of harm index parameters relating to patient treatment, each harm index parameter being associated with harm index values representing the severity of medication errors associated with each harm index parameter, and wherein the processor is further configured determine the overall harm index value for each medication error in the log based on assessing the harm index values for each harm index parameter corresponding to each medication error.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the harm index parameters include drug type, dosage, level of care of the patient and detectability of the error.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein each medication error in the log is defined by a plurality of treatment parameters and the processor is further configured to compare the harm index parameters to the treatment parameters for each medication error and assign a harm index value to each treatment parameter to determine the overall harm index value of each medication error.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the means for reporting the overall harm index value for each medication error to a user comprises a display operatively connected to the processor for displaying the overall harm index value for each medication error.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the means for reporting the overall harm index value for each medication error to a user comprises a printer operatively connected to the processor for printing a report of the overall harm index value for each medication error.

8. A system for assessing potential for harm of detected medication errors associated with delivering medication to a patient, comprising:

a patient care device for delivering medication to a patient;

means for entering values for medication administration parameters to program the patient care device to deliver medication to a patient;

a memory associated with the patient care device in which is stored medication administration guidelines representing acceptable values for the medication administration parameters;

a processor operatively connected to the memory and configured to compare the entered values to the acceptable values and indicate when an error representing a discrepancy between the values is detected;

wherein the memory further stores a harm index database including harm index values representing potential for harm associated with a plurality of medication errors, and wherein the processor is further configured to determine an overall harm index value for the indicated error based on the harm index values associated with the corresponding medication error stored in the harm index database; and

means for reporting the overall harm index value to a user.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the harm index database further includes a plurality of harm index parameters relating to patient treatment, each harm index parameter being associated with the harm index values according to the potential for harm of each harm index parameter, and wherein the processor is further configured to determine the overall harm index value for the indicated error based on the harm index values associated with the harm index parameters corresponding to the indicated medication error.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the harm index parameters include drug type, dosage, level of care of the patient and detectability of the error.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the means for reporting overall harm index value to a user comprises a display operatively connected to the processor for displaying the error and associated overall harm index value.

12. A patient care device for delivering medication to a patient, comprising:

an input device for entering values for medication administration parameters for delivery of medication to a patient;

a memory in which is stored medication administration guidelines representing acceptable values for the medication administration parameters and a harm index database including harm index values associated with a plurality of medication errors, the harm index values representing potential for harm of the medication errors;

a processor operatively connected to the memory and configured to compare the entered values to the acceptable values and to determine an overall harm index value when the entered values do not match the acceptable values, the overall harm index value being determined based on the harm index values stored in the harm index database which are associated with the entered values; and

means for reporting the overall harm index value to a user.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the means for reporting the overall harm index value to a user comprises a display for displaying the overall harm index value to a user.

14. A method for assessing the severity of medication errors associated with an administration of medication by a patient care device to a patient, comprising:

detecting when a value of a treatment parameter entered into the patient care device is out of range by comparing the entered value to values stored in a library of acceptable values of treatment parameters;

providing an alert that the entered value is out of range if the comparison indicated that the entered value is not found within the library of acceptable values;

storing information concerning the alert in a memory of the patient care device;

communicating the stored information in the memory of the medication administration device to a processor;

analyzing the stored information by determining an overall harm index value for the alert represented by the stored information from a harm index database that assigns harm index values to various alerts, the harm index values representing the severity of the alert; and

reporting the overall harm index value for the alert represented by the stored information to the care-giver.

15. A method for assessing the severity of medication errors associated with an administration of medication by a patient care device to a patient, comprising:

detecting when a value of a treatment parameter entered into the patient care device is out of range by comparing the entered value to values stored in a library of acceptable values of treatment parameters;

providing an alert that the entered value is out of range if the comparison indicated that the entered value is not found within the library of acceptable values; and

determining a harm index value for the alert by comparing the entered treatment parameters values associated with the alert to a harm index database which provides harm index values representing the severity of an alert based on the treatment parameters associated with the alert.