Medication management system

Abstract

A system and method for confirming that a medication administration device has been programmed with the correct medication administration parameters. A medical database carrier is used compare medication delivery parameters entered into a medication administration device to institutionally established guidelines or more widely accepted protocols to ensure that the medication is delivered in accordance to those guidelines. The medical database carrier may also be configured to communicate information regarding medication delivery and other patient information between a control system in communication with the care-giving facility's other information systems and a patient specific asset such as an infusion pump. The medical database carrier may be a smartcard, a PDA such as a Palm™ Pilot, laptop computer, pager, mobile phone, or other device capable of storing, processing and communicating information. The system may use either wired or wireless connections to communicate information between the components of the system.

Description

BACKGROUND[0001]The present invention relates generally to systems and methods for managing patient care in a health care facility, and more particularly, to systems and methods for integrating and managing information with respect to medical care, medication delivery, asset identification, and verification of drug delivery.[0002]Medication errors, that is, errors that occur in the ordering, dispensing, and administration of medications, regardless of whether those errors cause injury or not, are a significant consideration in the delivery of healthcare in the institutional setting. The Sep. 9, 2002 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine reported a study indicating that nearly one in every five doses of medicine given to patients in the typical hospital is a medication error (“Medication Errors Observed in 36 Health Care Facilities”). This study confirms the findings from earlier reports, including the 1999 Institute of Medicine Report, which revealed that more than 50,000 deaths in...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention is a new and improved information management system and method for monitoring, controlling, and validating the administration of medical care in a health care facility. The system includes a medical database carrier that contains information about past and present medical administration activities and guidelines for appropriate parameters for administering various medications. The system uses wireless technology to communicate information between components of the system, such as a medication administration device and a patient specific asset. The invention allows caregivers to compare medication administration information to institutionally established guidelines and make corrections before administering the medication to the patient. The system also allows for the proper delivery of the right medication to the right patient by incorporating information from other institutional information systems. Overall, the invention improves the accuracy and safety of medication administration in health care facilities.

Problems solved by technology

Medication errors, that is, errors that occur in the ordering, dispensing, and administration of medications, regardless of whether those errors cause injury or not, are a significant consideration in the delivery of healthcare in the institutional setting.

Additionally, adverse drug events (“ADE”) defined as injuries involving a drug that require medical intervention, which are a subset of medication errors, represent some of the most serious medication errors, are responsible for a number of patient injuries and death.

These devices are predominantly used to verify administration of oral, intramuscular (“IM”), subcutaneous, and topical drugs and have limited capability in verifying the administration of intravenous (“IV”) drugs.

One disadvantage of these devices is they are currently incapable of monitoring or receiving data regarding the initial and ongoing infusion parameters of an IV infusion device.

Despite this safeguard, opportunities arise for patient identification error.

Moreover, manually transferring other information such as parameters for configuring an infusion pump to dispense medication may result in errors that reduce the accuracy and / or effectiveness of drug administration and patient care.

This may result in an increased duration of treatment with an attendant increase in cost.

For a variety of reasons, such as the transfer of patients to different beds or different wards and errors in marking the slips of paper, the possibility arises that a patient may be given an incorrect treatment.

Delivery, verification, and control of medication in an institutional setting have traditionally been areas where errors can occur.

But the system may not be capable of thoroughly verifying that the appropriate medication regimen is being delivered to a patient in the case where IV drugs are being delivered.

The applicable healthcare facility control system, such as the pharmacy information system, may not know that the patient has received the medication, and if the information is lost somewhere, the possibility exists of medicating the patient twice.

Thus, there may be a break in the link of verification that the medication is being properly delivered to the patient if an event occurs resulting in a deviation from the desired treatment parameters.

Moreover, even where the right medication arrives at the right patient for administration, incorrect administration of the medication may occur where the medication is to be administered using an automated or semi-automated administration device, such as an infusion pump, if the automated device is programmed with incorrect medication administration parameters.

For example, even where the medication order includes the correct infusion parameters, those parameters may be incorrectly entered into an infusion pump, causing the infusion pump to administer the medication in a manner that may not result in the prescribed treatment.

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