How Smart Pumps Protect Your Patients From Opioid Med Errors And Addiction

The opioid epidemic often begins in the hospital when a patient uses too many opiate medications to kill their pain. Some are treated with these medications using IV pumps, a dispersal method that can be problematic if not tracked properly. Thankfully, there are a multitude of smart pumps available that can make this job much easier and help to prevent the risk of addiction and overdose in your patients.

Opioids Are Powerful, But Dangerous, Painkillers

Every year, thousands of people are administered powerful opiate painkillers through IV dispersal systems. These painkillers help people who are suffering from severe diseases—like cancer—live a life that is as pain-free as possible. In most cases, people receive these medications without overdosing or suffering from any addictive behaviors.

However, the use of these medications has to be handled very carefully or that risk increases. And while IV dispersal is probably still the safest and easiest ways to manage these narcotics, there is still a chance that a person receiving these medications could end up becoming addicted or even overdosing while they are still in the hospital.

These issues can occur if med errors happen during the programming, planning, and dispersal process. Common medication errors include dosing improper levels, using the wrong medication, or forgetting to wean somebody off of a powerful opiate. In this situation, addiction and overdose are a lot more likely. Thankfully, smart IV pumps can help to decrease the risk of this danger.

How Smart IV Pumps Help

Smart IV pumps are designed to provide a myriad of benefits to medical facilities like yours. They use an automatic system to disperse medication and can be programmed in a variety of differing ways. They are particularly beneficial for getting opioid medication to your patients who are suffering from severe pain because they will:

• Maintain a consistent medicine flow
• Turn off when the flow gets too high
• Trigger an alarm if problems occur
• Minimize the use of potent medications like opiates

Adding a smart IV pump to your painkiller management provides you all of these benefits and decreases the amount of opiate waste you go through with a patient. Just as importantly, smart pumps help to provide your patients with a buffer against addiction. Make sure that you carefully program each pump to ensure that you overcome any limitations that it may possess.

So, if you are worried about dispersing addictive opiate painkillers and want to protect your patients, don't hesitate to purchase a smart IV pump right away. Adding these pieces of technology to your hospital makes it a safer place to stay and minimizes the risk of overdose and addiction that can occur when treating somebody with potent opioid medications.

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