Medication delivery and monitoring system and methods

Abstract

A medication delivery and monitoring system and methods whereby drugs are safely delivered to a patient, monitored in real-time during delivery and crucial events are recorded during delivery to provide real-time, on-line information and detail for an audit trail. A novel safety label cradle unit is disclosed. Safety label cradles (SLC's) are provided in a plurality of sizes to match varying sizes of syringes which are disposed on a cradle of the SLC to provide a constant needle height on the SLC unit independent of syringe volume (barrel diameter). A selected SLC is securely affixed to a syringe by an adhesively backed label wrapping. The label is preprinted to provide drug identification indicia and drug preparation information. The information is automatically read into the system from the label. A novel delivery station of the system monitors drug delivery as a plunger of the syringe is pushed to deliver a drug to a patient. A smart tray in cooperation with a slider portion of the SLC is used to selectively deliver drugs to a port in the IV set. The smart tray comprises a first portion for carrying SLC units, an attachable second portion having a control panel for operating the system and a cover for lockably affixing the SLC units to the tray.

Description

FIELD OF INVENTIONThe field of the invention is control and monitoring of medications delivered to a patient and more particularly to methods and apparatus involved in automatically controlling drug delivery, including controlling of drug administration rate and volume, with real-time monitoring and record keeping.BACKGROUNDProblems related to misidentification and resulting erroneous delivery of drugs are well known in the medical care art. Other problems related to drug control, maintaining adequate drug records, contamination of drugs prepared on patient floors are also well known in the pharmaceutical art. This invention provides solutions to the above disclosed problems and many others as will become evident hereafter.Manual dispensing of drugs from pharmacy to anesthesia is a common practice in hospitals and other surgery facilities today. Anesthesia providing departments generally fill syringes with drugs, administer the drugs directly to patients and document the drug handli...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

In brief summary, this novel invention alleviates all of the known problems related to drug administration. The present invention pertains to a system which is used to assure proper identification and administration of prescribed drugs, to control access to drugs and to record drug distribution activities. The invention also permits direct use of centralized pharmaceutical resources in preparing medications in clean (e.g. air hood) environments where contamination is less likely, in producing standardized labeling and in packaging drugs for distribution within a medical facility. The invention is particularly well adapted for use in handling prescription dose quantities rather than single-dose medication(s), thereby providing opportunity for reduced cost of drug handling.

Dynamic control and delivery of drugs permits use of pre-filled syringes at the pharmacy and eliminates the need for unit dose sized medicants and the need for filling syringes by a bedside clinician. This approach yields cost efficiencies in both drug handling and clinician time. Pre-filling syringes by batch processing under sterile hoods reduces errors and nosocomial infections and allows quick and efficient response to clinical (emergency) situations.

A natural benefit of the instant invention is production of an drug administration audit trail. As well, drug access is severely limited by locked, secured lids on cassette trays. The cassette trays assuredly thereby contain only original syringes and associated syringe label cradle's (SLC's) permitting an accurate quality assurance to be maintained by pharmacy. Return of unused drugs under controlled conditions allows a significant reduction in drug waste due to otherwise unwarranted disposition.

Automatically powered needle injection into IV set injection sites under protective cover provided by a shield associated with each SLC is a major factor in eliminating needle sticks which could otherwise occur. Contamination is thereby minimized as well. Additional patient protection is provided by data contained on a patient data card which is an integral part of patient data management capability of the inventive combination.

Accordingly, it is a primary object to provide a medical drug delivery and monitoring system having capability for automatically dispensing drugs to a patient, monitoring and recording drug rates and volumes in real time, and providing drug control and drug record security throughout a medical procedure.

It is an important object to provide a system which sequentially utilizes portions of drugs contained in syringes placed in the SLC's thereby eliminating the necessity of prepackaging drugs in predetermined quantities, such as unit doses, and of preparing syringes at a patient site by a clinician, thereby making drug preparation more efficient, less prone to contamination and error and less expensive due to higher volume preparation at a central pharmaceutical site.

Problems solved by technology

This approach yields cost efficiencies in both drug handling and clinician time.

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