Louisiana's Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center (OLOL) has successfully tested and implemented auto programming between infusion pumps and a bar-code point-of-care system throughout its facility. Through a three-way partnership with Cerner and Hospira, Inc., OLOL, one of the largest private medical centers in Louisiana, has completed house-wide deployment of a connected medication infusion device, which helps minimize manual programming for entering medication orders on the pump at the patient's bedside. OLOL has used the integrated system on more than 600 wireless infusion pumps throughout the facility since June.

The auto programming process uses a set of bar codes located on the patient wristband, the medication bag and the infusion pump to pull data from the EHR and to confirm the five rights of medication administration: right drug, right dose, right patient, right time and right route of administration. Using a handheld device, the caregiver scans the three bar codes and confirms the order on the pump to deliver the medication exactly as ordered by the physician in the EHR. Auto programming infusion pumps decrease the chance for dosing errors, reduces programming time and increases compliance with medication orders. The device and the technology that powers it were developed in partnership between Hospira and Cerner. The Hospira Plum A+(R) infusion pump with Hospira MedNet(R) safety software is connected to the Cerner Millennium(R) system through the CareAware MDBus(TM), a plug-and-play device connectivity architecture that enables two-way communication between medical devices and the EHR.

"This type of interoperability between medical devices and the electronic health record sets a new standard for accuracy of information and optimizing workflow for clinicians," said Tom Herzog, Cerner's vice president for IT and healthcare devices. "By connecting infusion pumps to the electronic medical record, we can help eliminate a potential source of dangerous medication errors, ultimately making care safer and more efficient for patients."