BD Alaris™ Guardrails™ Safety Software for the BD Alaris™ Plus Platform
Medication errors are a serious healthcare issue: 237 million medication errors occur in the UK each year resulting in costs of £1.6B p.a.1 28% of these errors are potentially harmful to patients.1 Medication errors can occur at any stage of the medication delivery process, from prescription to administration2 and those occurring at the administration stage are the hardest to intercept2. Of particular concern is that intravenous (IV) infusions are responsible for more than 50% of all medication related adverse events involving hospitalised patients3. They have been identified as frequent contributors to medication errors4 and resulting patient injuries4.
BD provides advanced IV medication safety solutions, that help Healthcare Professionals standardise IV infusion protocols, protect patients and the clinicians, evaluate IV administration practice, and improve the quality of infusion therapy.
These advanced infusion solutions consist of the BD Alaris™ Plus Guardrails™ smart pumps, safety software suite, and supporting services that have demonstrated proven results in helping to improve medication error reduction5 and costs associated with such errors6, while supporting continuous quality improvement5.
Standardisation is the first step to infusion medication safety. Smart pumps with soft and hard limits on standardised concentrations and flow rates help reduce dose errors.
BD Alaris™ Editor allows you to:
Adverse Drug Events (ADEs) are a healthcare priority with the objective of reinforcing the quality of care and reducing undesirable event linked to healthcare products.
ADEs are associated with increased morbidity and mortality7,8 prolonged hospitalisations9, and higher costs of care10.
BD Alaris™ Plus Guardrails™ Pumps use BD Alaris™ Guardrails™ Safety Software, which provides safety limits for each drug by care area, promoting safe delivery of IV medication.
BD Alaris™ Guardrails™ systems are demonstrated to be profitable in a pediatric intensive care unit because of their ability to intercept potentially serious medication errors and to reduce costs associated with such errors11.
Nurses lose valuable time looking for information or dealing with predictable alarms. Increasingly, patients are placed in individual rooms to prevent infections. This makes managing infusion pumps even more difficult.
Alaris™ Infusion Central is software that displays infusion status data in near real time allowing staff to view the ward's infusions on a computer display in order to help improve infusion preparation and management.
Feedback on serious Adverse Drug Events (ADEs) associated with healthcare and/or near-miss incidents are central to every hospital's contractual commitments
With BD Alaris™ Guardrails™ CQI Event Reporter hospitals can accurately document ADEs and monitor trends. This information helps identify education needs and required clinical practice changes for improved patient protection. Acting on CQI data facilitates risk management, provides opportunities for dataset and medication guideline enhancement and increases workflow efficiency.
BD Alaris™ Guardrails™ CQI Event Reporter helps to:
Figure 1: Number of Hard Limit alerts generated in ICU*.
* Fictitious data based on representative reports from various practices equipped with BD Alaris™ Guardrails™ Safety Software
In this example, the pump did not allow the user to start the infusion where the morphine dose entered into the setting of the pump was 100 times more than the hard limit that was programmed.
Hospitals need a quality management system to ensure the quality and safety of drug administration to their patient. Data analyses lead to corrective actions and their efficacy can be verified. Data set-up/downloads are done manually and take significant time; automated systems are required to optimise workflow management.
With BD Alaris™ Guardrails™ Safety Services, you receive a comprehensive Infusion Medication Safety Service including full project management and clinical consulting for BD Alaris™ Guardrails™ Safety Software:
BD's Medication Safety Team has extensive implementation and support experience in the IV medical technology industry, helping you to gain the full benefit of your IV device investment.
With BD Alaris™ Communication Engine software you can:
Please note, not all products, services or features of products and services may be available in your local area. Please check with your local BD representative.
BD-44667