Background:
- One of the most important aspects of a smart pump is the drug library.
- The library is the database that holds the drug dosing information, including dosing limits, infusion parameters, and drug specific advisories.
- Dosing Limits
- Dosing limits can be described by upper or lower limits as well as hard or soft stop.
Upper dosing limits are the highest dose that is acceptable for a safe patient dose, and lower limits are the lowest doses that are acceptable.
- Hard limits are upper or lower dosing limits that are set in the drug database that cannot be overridden. If the clinical programming the pump enters a dose that is over the hard limit, the pump will not allow the infusion to continue.
- Soft limits are upper or lower dosing limits that provide a warning prior to hitting the hard limit, so they can be overridden and the infusion can continue. Some infusion devices require a reason to be entered into the pump prior to overriding the soft limit, so overrides can be tracked and evaluated.
- There are infusion devices with software that uses patient specific weights to calculate drug doses and compare them against the upper and lower limits set in the drug library.
- Infusion rate limits can be set in the drug library programming to match a drug with the appropriate infusion time. Just like drug dose limits, infusion rates could be set with upper and lower limits.
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