Infusion Pump Interoperability and Resulting Alert Reduction: Multisystem Findings.

This was a retrospective analysis of existing pump logs, and the authors state the comparison cannot establish causality. The control system also received the quarterly data analytics service and showed non-significant decreases in alerts and overrides. Staff changes and drug library revisions during the observation windows were not controlled. The analysis could not link scanning compliance to alert outcomes. It only counted errors caught by the dose error reduction system; errors that did not trigger an alert were not captured. It did not measure patient outcomes, adverse events, nurse workload, or alert fatigue. Drug library compliance was already very high at most sites, so there was little room to show improvement. One site's large compliance rise was due to switching from Plum A+ to Plum 360, not interoperability alone.

The dataset was initially gathered for product development and quality improvement initiatives between the hospitals and ICU Medical, Inc. The study was supported by ICU Medical, Inc. Dr Blake is an advisor and consultant for ICU Medical, Inc.

Do not read the alert reduction as proof that interoperability alone improved patient outcomes or reduced nurse workload. The sites also received drug library alignment, functional testing, and quarterly data analytics service, and the study did not measure patient adverse events, workload, or alert fatigue.