Hello all,

I hope this email finds you well. I wanted to reach out to know if you guys have any best practices or have just learned as you've gone with regards to setting pressures on your smart pumps. I ask because we have had a couple incidents that have come to our attention and have lead to a lot of deep diving and long phone calls/Webex video chats. In these instances, medications needed for hemodynamic stability have unfortunately been left clamped and there was no alert for a very long time due to inappropriate pressures being set. We found that our pressures for peds/neonates were set at the same level as adults. That has since been changed. But apparently it had been this way since going live with SmartPumps in 2012. (We use Alaris.) As a result, now that it has come to our attention, we are digging and finding more and more incidents have occurred. Some are the result of an old fleet but some just due to not knowing on our side (result of turnover as well).

Has any other institution experienced this?

1. Are you asking the makers of your pumps for guidance or are you using clinical experience as your guide, or both?
2. How engaged are your nursing leaders with being involved with the process?
3. How are you adjusting pressures - based on library/profile (Adult vs Peds vs PICU vs Neonatal ICU); or are you doing it based on library/profile and weight parameters (Peds ICU <10 kg, Peds ICU 10 kg or greater)
4. What SmartPump do you use?

Would love some feedback.

Jameika Stuckey
Univ of MS Medical Center