Presentation (CTI)

OBJECTIVES: Manual infusion smart pumps are commonly used to administer intravenous (IV)-drugs in inpatient hospital settings but may be associated with medication administration errors leading to preventable adverse drug events (pADEs) and patient harm. Smart infusion pumps also may result in a loss of outpatient infusion administration charge capture due to inaccurate manual documentation. The introduction of smart infusion pump interoperability with electronic health records has shown evidence of reducing medication administration errors while improving outpatient infusion administration charge capture.
METHODS: A cost-benefit-analysis was conducted to assess the annual economic impact of implementing infusion smart pump interoperability compared to manual infusion smart pumps. The hypothetical health-system in the model consists of six hospitals with 1,500-beds and 35,000-annual admissions. A systematic review of the literature identified the best available references to support each model input parameter. The incidence of pADEs were set at 0.59 per 100 admissions, with 54% being from infusions. The incremental additive cost per pADE was estimated at $9,471 with the reduction in pADEs from interoperability set at 15.4% to 54.8%. Interoperability was also estimated to reduce lost outpatient infusion administration charge capture by 38%.
RESULTS: For the hypothetical health-system, the introduction of smart infusion pump interoperability with EHR led to a potential annual reduction of pADEs ranging from 17 to 61 events, resulting in cost savings ranging from $161,0075 to $577,731. Implementing interoperability reduced the amount of lost health-system outpatient infusions administration charges by $1,943,645.
CONCLUSIONS: Implementing bidirectional smart infusion pump interoperability may lead to improved patient safety through reducing pADEs and improved outpatient administration charge capture. Health-systems should consider the safety and economic implications of smart infusion pump interoperability when deciding whether to invest in this technology.