Intravenous medication harm index system
First Claim
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.
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Accused Products
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.
161 Citations
15 Claims
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1. A system for assessing the severity of medication errors associated with delivering medication to a patient, comprising:
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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. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A system for assessing potential for harm of detected medication errors associated with delivering medication to a patient, comprising:
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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. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11)
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12. A patient care device for delivering medication to a patient, comprising:
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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. - View Dependent Claims (13)
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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:
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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.
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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:
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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.
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Specification