The ECRI Institute this month released its top 10 health technology hazards for the next year, with Infusion errors and inadequate cleaning of reusable instruments topping the list.
The ECRI institute is a nonprofit dedicated to analyzing and researching which medical procedures, devices, drugs and processes are best to improve patient care, the group said.
The institute nailed large-volume infusion pumps as its largest hazard, saying that despite improved safety features, the mechanisms have been “known to fail” and can lead to patient harm or even death.
Issues with the pumps included administration set failures, inadvertent safety mechanism deactivation or incorrect infusion programming.
The ECRI institute listed 3 safety steps to avoid such issues, including monitoring signs of physical damage to the pump and components, appropriate use of roller clamp on IV tubing and checking the drip chamber beneath the medication reservoir for unexpected flow.
The group listed infections caused by inadequate cleaning of complex reusable instruments as the 2nd greatest hazard for healthcare tech, an issue that clocked in at #1 last year in the groups report.
Infections from inadequate cleaning have been a major issue in the industry, with regulatory bodies including the FDA, and the U.S. Senate cracking down on the problem.
In January, the U.S. Senate’s health committee issued a report blaming hospitals, medical device companies and the FDA for the deadly outbreaks of so-called “superbug” infections linked to duodenoscopes.
The devices are used for a procedure called endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography, in which a reusable tube-like camera is inserted into the throat of a patient. More than 500,000 ERCPs using the devices are performed in the U.S. annually. Hospitals in Connecticut, Virginia, California and Washington state all reported superbug outbreaks in February and March 2014, some of which led to patients’ deaths.
Items 3 through 6 include missed ventilator alarms, which can lead to stopped respiration and even patient death, undetected opioid-induced respiratory depression, infection risks with heater-cooler devices in cardiothoracic surgery and software management gaps.
The last 4 hazards noted by the ECRI instate are occupational radiation hazards in hybrid ORs, medication error caused by automated dispensing cabinets, surgical stapler misuse or malfunctions and general device failures caused by cleaning products and practices.
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