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Ohio Valley General leads the way in IV technology
Ohio Valley General Hospital Director of Critical Care Theresa Metelsky
Andy Russell/Tribune-Review
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Sandra Tolliver can be reached via e-mail or at 412-320-7829.
As the clinical site for two companies testing their technology, Ohio Valley General Hospital in Kennedy has operated the automated system in its 26-bed critical care unit for two years and will extend it hospital-wide during the next two weeks.
When the system is fully operational, the 119-bed hospital will have invested $2 million to $4 million in bar coding, a smart infusion system and wireless network technology, spokesman Greg Erhard said.
"All the caregiver has to do is push the start button on the pump, once the (bar code) scanning is done," Erhard said. "Independently, these technologies are out there. This is the first time it's been used in concert."
The hospital installed bar code technology in 2001, and two years ago began replacing IV pumps. Its board of directors decided to make Ohio Valley General a clinical test site after McKesson Automation Inc., which developed the bar code system, and ALARIS Medical Systems Inc. of San Diego, which supplied the "smart" pumps, suggested a partnership, said Vivian Funkhouser, product marketing manager for McKesson Automation, in Washington's Landing on the North Side.
"Ohio Valley General is our first partner to really launch it, and from there we'll release it to the market and deploy it in other hospitals around the country," Funkhouser said. "They had the right infrastructure in place, and ... they're a very forward-thinking hospital, considered an early adopter in wanting to take on high technology."
The IV safety system replaces paper records, giving nurses, physicians and hospital pharmacists real-time patient information. Using a wireless hand-held device, the nurse scans several bar codes -- on his or her own identification badge, on the patient's wristband, and on the IV system -- and information is transferred electronically from the pharmacy to the IV pump.
If an error occurs in matching any of the information, the IV system won't activate when the nurse tries to start the pump, and instead will signal the nurse to review the data.
Medication errors pose one of the greatest risks in hospitals, according to a recent nationwide study by HealthGrades Inc. of Lakewood, Colo., which found that as many as 195,000 people a year could be dying in U.S. hospitals because of easily preventable medication errors.
The industry term "death by decimal" arose from nurses punching in the wrong numbers and administering overdoses, said Peg Spisak, a registered nurse who is Ohio Valley General's director of quality and risk management.
"Medication errors are the No. 1 medical error, without a doubt," Spisak said. "That's because of the volume of doses that are given every day in every hospital. The IV pumps address the IV medication; they are the most serious errors because you're giving medication directly into a bloodstream."
Nearly all patients in the critical care unit receive some medications intravenously, and IVs are widely used in the hospital's medical-surgical units, Spisak said. Ohio Valley General also uses bar code scanning to ensure accurate administration of oral medications and to record information in patients' medical records.
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