WO2018065149A1

WO2018065149A1 - Application system for controlling infusions to a multiplicity of patients

Info

Publication number: WO2018065149A1
Application number: PCT/EP2017/071398
Authority: WO
Inventors: Christine DURAND
Original assignee: Fresenius Vial SAS
Current assignee: Fresenius Vial SAS
Priority date: 2016-10-05
Filing date: 2017-08-25
Publication date: 2018-04-12
Anticipated expiration: 2019-04-05

Abstract

An application system (1) for controlling infusions to a multiplicity of patients (A-C) in a healthcare environment comprises a multiplicity of infusion systems (2A-2C) for providing infusions to a multiplicity of patients (A-C), each infusion system (2A-2C) comprising at least one infusion device (21) for administering an infusion to an associated patient (A-C) and an infusion management device (22) for controlling the at least one infusion device (21), the infusion management device (22) being constituted to output information relating to an infusion and having an input device (220) allowing a user (N) to input control commands relating to an infusion. A communication network connects the multiplicity of infusion systems (2A-2C) to allow for a transmission of data in between the infusion systems (2A, 2C). Herein, the infusion management device (22) of at least one of the multiplicity of infusion systems (2A-2C) is constituted to output information relating to an infusion operation carried out by another infusion system (2A- 2C) of the multiplicity of infusion systems (2A-2C), wherein the input device (220) of said infusion management device (22) of the at least one of the multiplicity of infusion systems (2A-2C) is configured to allow a user (N) to input a control command relating to an infusion operation carried out by said other infusion system (2A-2C). In this way, an application system is provided which in an easy and intuitive way allows a user, in particular a nurse, to monitor multiple infusions provided by multiple different infusion systems at the same time.

Description

Application system for controlling infusions to a multiplicity of patients

Description The invention relates to an application system for controlling infusions to a multiplicity of patients in a healthcare environment.

An application system of this kind comprises a multiplicity of infusion systems for providing infusions to a multiplicity of patients, each infusion system comprising at least one infusion device for administering an infusion to an associated patient and an infusion management device for controlling the at least one infusion device. The infusion management device herein is constituted to output information relating to an infusion and comprises an input device allowing a user to input control commands relating to an infusion. A communication network connects the multiplicity of infusion systems to each other to allow for a transmission of data in between the infusion systems.

An application system of this kind may for example be used in a hospital, for example in an intensive care unit of a hospital. The application system herein relates to a scenario in which multiple patients are treated simultaneously throughout the healthcare environment, for example in an intensive care unit, for example in different patient bed rooms of an intensive care unit. At the bedside of each patient, herein, an infusion system is arranged for providing one or multiple infusions to the patient, the infusion system for example comprising a multiplicity of infusion devices such as volumetric infusion pumps or syringe infusion pumps for example arranged in an organized fashion on a rack. For example in an intensive care unit, multiple patients typically are simultaneously treated and are subjected to infusions. Herein, generally one nurse may be responsible for multiple patients at the same time, the nurse having to monitor the state of the patient and the progress of ongoing infusions. For this, the nurse typically spends a certain amount of time with each patient before moving to another patient in order to check on each patient one after the other and to perform necessary actions on the patient. There is a trend to place patients in separate rooms in an intensive care unit. Placing patients in individual rooms may help to improve the intimacy of the patients, and furthermore may help to reduce stress for the nurses, the patients and also the relatives of the patients, which ultimately may help to improve the service on the patients and to reduce the amount of errors.

Placing patients in different rooms however also has the effect that a nurse being responsible for multiple patients at the same time cannot easily monitor the patients simultaneously, because a nurse treating a patient in an individual room cannot observe easily what is going on in another room.

In particular in light of the fact that multiple patients may be subjected to multiple infusions at the same time, each infusion possibly being critical for the patient's state of health, there is a desire to ease the work of a nurse for observing multiple patients at the same time. There also is a desire to be able to attend to alarm conditions arising during infusions in a suitable way once they arise, bearing in mind that a recurrent sound of an alarm may lead to so-called alarm fatigue, reducing the awareness to certain alarm conditions.

It is the object of the instant invention to provide an application system and a method for operating an application system which in an easy and intuitive way allow a user, in particular a nurse, to monitor multiple infusions provided by multiple different infusion systems at the same time.

This object is achieved by means of an application system comprising the features of claim 1 . Accordingly, the infusion management device of at least one of the multiplicity of infusion systems is constituted to output information relating to an infusion operation carried out by another infusion system of the multiplicity of infusion systems, wherein the input device of a said infusion management device of the at least one of the multiplicity of infusion systems is configured to allow a user to input a control command relating to an infusion operation carried out by said other infusion system.

In particular, each infusion management system of each of the multiplicity of infusion systems may be constituted to output information relating to an infusion operation carried out by another infusion system, wherein the input device of each infusion management device is configured to allow a user to input a control command relating to an infusion operation carried out by said other infusion system.

The multiple infusion systems may be located for example on the bedside of different patients being placed in different rooms of a healthcare environment, for example in an intensive care unit of a hospital. By means of the application system a user, in particular a nurse, is enabled to monitor infusions carried out by the multiplicity of infusion systems and to act on the infusions in an easy, comfortable way. In particular, the user is enabled to act on an infusion carried out by a remote infusion system by entering control commands into the infusion management device of an infusion system the user is currently attending to. If the user, for example a nurse, currently is attending to a patient and hence is in the range of the infusion system associated with that patient, the user is informed about the progress of infusions carried out by other infusion systems via the infusion management device of the infusion system the user is currently dealing with. Via that infusion management device the user may enter control commands relating to the other, remote infusion systems, such that the user may act onto infusions carried out by those other, remote infusion systems. Hence, one infusion system may be controlled from another infusion system. It hence becomes easy to a user to observe all infusions the user is currently responsible for, even if the user currently attends to a patient in an individual room, the other patients hence currently being out of sight. In one embodiment, the infusion management system is configurable by the user. In particular, the user may select a subset of infusion systems of the multiplicity of infusion systems to output information relating to infusion operations carried out by that subset and to input control commands relating to infusion operations carried out by the subset. A user hence may select those infusion systems which are associated with the patients the user is responsible for. The infusion management system hence selectively displays information relating to the selected infusion systems and allows the user to control infusions carried out by the selected infusion systems.

The input device of the infusion management device may for example be constituted by a touch-sensitive display which displays information and allows to enter control commands relating to that information. Control commands herein may for example be input upon authorization of a user by a password.

To allow one infusion system to control infusions of one or multiple other, remote infusion systems, the infusion systems are in communication connection with each other. For connecting the infusion systems to each other, a communication network such as a network making use of the Internet Protocol, for example constituted as an intranet internal to a hospital, may be used. The communication herein may take place via a central server to which all infusion systems are connected and via which the infusion systems communicate with each other. Other setups however are conceivable, for example setups including a multiplicity of distributed servers, or a direct communication in between the infusion systems.

In one embodiment, the infusion management system may be constituted to output information relating to an alarm condition of an infusion operation carried out by another infusion system. In this case the input device of the infusion management device may be configured to allow a user to input a control command relating to the alarm condition in order to allow the user to react to the alarm condition.

An alarm condition may be arise if anything abnormal during an infusion operation occurs, or if a situation arises which a user needs to attend to. An alarm condition may for example be the presence of an occlusion in an infusion line via which an infusion is administered to a patient, an air alarm indicating that air is present in an infusion line, an end-of-infusion alarm indicating that an infusion approaches its end, or an empty-bag condition indicating that a bag from which medication is taken is empty. Other alarm conditions may relate to operational states of an infusion device, for example a low- power state or the like. With the proposed scheme, an infusion management device of a certain infusion system may display alarm conditions of other, remote infusion systems, and a user may act onto those alarm conditions by inputting control commands into the infusion management device of the infusion system the user is currently attending to.

In a further embodiment, the infusion management device may be constituted to output information relating to the alarm condition occurring at another, remote infusion system prior to the other infusion system actually outputting an indication of the alarm condition. Hence, the infusion management device may display the alarm condition to the user prior to an alarm sounding at the other, remote infusion system at which the alarm condition arises. The user hence is informed about the alarm condition and can act onto the alarm condition before an alarm begins to sound at the infusion system at which the alarm condition is present. This may help to avoid unnecessary alarm sounds, because a user can silence an alarm from the location at which the user currently is, before the alarm actually sounds at the infusion system at which the alarm condition is present. This ultimately may help to reduce alarm fatigue.

In one embodiment, each infusion system may comprise a rack and a multiplicity of infusion devices, in particular infusion pumps, arranged on the rack. The rack mechanically holds the infusion devices in an organized fashion, for example to form a vertical stack of infusion devices, the rack also providing for a communication link to connect the infusion devices to the communication network.

The infusion management device also may be connected to the rack, the infusion management device for example having a touch-sensitive display physically arranged on the rack.

In one embodiment, the infusion systems are located remote from one another, for example in different rooms of a healthcare environment. The infusion systems hence are spatially separated from one another, but are in communication connection with each other via the communication network.

In addition to the infusion management devices of the individual infusion systems, a central infusion management device may be provided which is connected to the communication network. The central infusion management device herein may be constituted to output information relating to all infusion operations carried out by the infusion systems it is assigned to. Via the central infusion management device a user hence may observe ongoing infusion operations and may act onto the infusion operations by inputting control commands relating to the infusion operations carried out by the infusion systems. The object is also achieved by means of a method for operating an application system for controlling infusions to a multiplicity of patients in a healthcare environment. The method comprises:

operating a multiplicity of infusion systems for providing infusions to a multiplicity of patients, each infusion system comprising at least one infusion device for administering an infusion to an associated patient and an infusion management device for controlling the at least one infusion device, the infusion management device being constituted to output information relating to an infusion and having an input device allowing a user to input control commands relating to an infusion, communicating data, via a communication network, in between the multiplicity of infusion systems,

outputting, on the infusion management device of one of the multiplicity of infusion systems, information relating to an infusion operation carried out by another infusion system of the multiplicity of infusion systems, and

inputting by a user, on the input device of said infusion management device of the one of the multiplicity of infusion systems, a control command relating to an infusion operation carried out by said other infusion system.

The advantages and advantageous embodiments described above for the application system equally apply also to the method, such that it shall be referred to the above.

The idea underlying the invention shall subsequently be described in more detail with respect to the embodiments shown in the figures. Herein:

Fig. 1 shows a schematic set up of an application system comprising a multiplicity of infusion systems;

Fig. 2 shows a flow chart for operating the application system;

Fig. 3A, 3B show views of a display of an infusion management device when configuring the infusion management device; and Fig. 4A-4D show views of the display of the infusion management device for observing an infusion of a remote infusion system.

Fig. 1 shows a schematic drawing of a setup of an application system 1 comprising a multiplicity of infusion systems 2A, 2B, 2C. The infusion systems 2A, 2B, 2C herein may be located in different locational areas of a healthcare environment, for example an intensive care unit of a hospital, for example in different patient bedrooms or in different operation theaters of a hospital. Each infusion system 2A, 2B, 2C comprises a multiplicity of infusion devices 21 , in particular infusion pumps in the shape of for example volumetric (peristaltic) infusion pumps or syringe infusion pumps, the infusion devices 21 being arranged in an organized fashion on a rack 20. The rack 20 herein mechanically holds the infusion devices 21 and at the same time provides for a communication link to connect the infusion devices 21 with a communication network, for example an internal hospital communication network.

The infusion devices 21 serve to provide infusions to patients A, B, C. Each patient A, B, C herein may be subjected to multiple infusions carried out by multiple infusion devices 21 at the same time, the infusion devices 21 serving to administer different medical solutions, such as medications or feeding solutions for the enteral or parenteral feeding. For this, the infusion devices 21 are connected to multiple infusion sets 24 comprising tubes extending in between the infusion devices 21 and the associated patient A, B, C. Each infusion system 2A, 2B, 2C comprises an infusion management device 22 comprising a touch-sensitive display 220 and being connected to the associated rack 20 and the infusion device 21 arranged thereon via a communication connection 23. The infusion management device 22 may for example be arranged on the rack 20 and may be physically connected to the rack 20, or the infusion management device 22 may be arranged in the vicinity of the rack 20 without however being directly connected to the rack 20.

The different infusion systems 2A, 2B, 2C are in communication connection with each other. For this, the infusion systems 2A, 2B, 2C may for example be connected, via communication connections 30, to a central server 3, the communication connections 30 for example being part of a communication network such as an intranet internal to a hospital and making use of the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). Via the server 3, data may be exchanged in between the infusion systems 2A, 2B, 2C.

Furthermore, in the setup of Fig. 1 a central infusion management device 4 is provided connected to the central server 3 via a communication connection 40. The central infusion management device 4 may be placed at a central location in a healthcare environment, for example in a central monitoring room (e.g. the nurse room) for example in a ward or in an intensive care unit, allowing for a central control of the infusion systems 2A, 2B, 2C.

In a hospital, typically a user, in particular a nurse, is responsible for multiple patients A, B, C at the same time. Hence, the user must monitor infusion operations the patient A, B, C is subjected to, and must act onto the infusion operations if a malfunction occurs or any situation arises which requires the attention of the user.

If the infusion systems 2A, 2B, 2C are placed in separate, individual locations such as individual rooms, the observation of the infusion operations however may not be easy for the user. In particular, for example in an intensive care unit a user typically spends a substantial amount of time at the bedside of a patient A, B, C, before attending to the next patient A, B, C. When infusion operations are ongoing, it however must be ensured that any critical situation at any patient A, B, C can be attended to by the responsible user in a timely fashion.

To address this issue, it is proposed to allow a user to monitor and to control the infusion operations carried out by the infusion systems 2A, 2B, 2C locally from any of the infusion systems 2A, 2B, 2C. If a user for example currently is attending to patient A and hence is at the location of infusion system 2A, the user may be provided with information about infusion operations carried out by the other infusion systems 2B, 2C and may input control commands relating to those other infusion systems 2B, 2C via the infusion management device 22 of the infusion system 2A it currently is dealing with. Hence, one infusion system 2A, 2B, 2C may be controlled from the location of another infusion system 2A, 2B, 2C. In this way, a user may in particular be informed about any alarm conditions arising on any infusion systems 2A, 2B, 2C the user is responsible for, such that the user may immediately react to that alarm condition, even if the user currently is located remote from the infusion system 2A, 2B, 2C at which the alarm condition has arisen. Fig. 2 shows a flow chart illustrating a potential workflow.

In a first step S1 , a user N may configure, at the infusion management device 22 of a particular infusion system 2A, 2B, 2C, which infusion systems 2A, 2B, 2C shall be monitored remotely. The infusion management device 22 hence can be configured such that on the infusion management device 22 information relating to those infusion systems 2A, 2B, 2C are displayed for which the user N is responsible.

In step S2, the information relating to infusion operations carried out by the selected infusion systems 2A, 2B, 2C are then displayed on the infusion management device 22.

In step S3, the user N may select a particular infusion system 2A, 2B, 2C associated with a patient A, B, C to obtain information about infusion operations carried out by said infusion system 2A, 2B, 2C. For the selected infusion system 2A, 2B, 2C, an infusion device 21 may be selected in order to obtain information about the infusion operation carried out by that infusion device 21 in order to possibly act onto the infusion operation.

Herein, in step S3 also additional information relating to a patient A, B, C may be displayed on the infusion management device 22, for example information relating to the health status of the patient A, B, C, for example an EEG reading or the like.

If, as indicated in step S4, an alarm condition arises on a remote infusion system 2A, 2B, 2C, the infusion management device 22 of the infusion system 2A, 2B, 2C the user N is currently dealing with displays information relating to that alarm condition. In this way the user N is warned of the alarm and, in step S5, can open on the infusion management device 22 a view displaying information about the infusion device 21 of the infusion system 2A, 2B, 2C on which the alarm condition has arisen and, in step S6, can attend to the alarm condition possibly by pausing the alarm or by leaving the patient A, B, C the user N is currently attending in order to attend the patient A, B, C to which the alarm relates.

The input of a control command herein may for example only be allowed upon entering of a password. Only an authorized user N hence may input a control command relating to the infusion operation of another infusion system 2A, 2B, 2C.

Fig. 3A and 3B show views of the touch-sensitive display 220 of an infusion management device 22 during configuration of the infusion management device 22 by a user. When attending a certain patient A, B, C and hence when operating on the infusion system 2A, 2B, 2C associated with that patient A, B, C, the user may configure the infusion management device 22 to display information relating to other, remote infusion systems 2A, 2B, 2C associated with other patients A, B, C in order to monitor those infusion systems 2A, 2B, 2C and to possibly act onto those infusion systems 2A, 2B, 2C remotely. For the configuration, as illustrated in Fig. 3A, the display 220 displays a view indicating different patients, which the user may select, as illustrated in Fig. 3B, in order to choose those patients which the user is responsible for and which shall be monitored. The patients may be displayed in different fields having different colors, and possibly are arranged on the view in a way such that the arrangement of the patients corresponds to the distribution of the patients throughout a care area, for example an intensive care unit.

Once the user has selected the patients which shall be monitored (Fig. 3B), the infusion management device 22 will display information relating to the infusion systems 2A, 2B, 2C associated with the selected patients A, B, C such that the user is informed about infusion operations carried out by the infusion systems 2A, 2B, 2C.

If a user wishes to obtain detailed information about operations carried out by an infusion system 2A, 2B, 2C, the user may, as illustrated in Fig. 4A, select a patient and hence an infusion system 2A, 2B, 2C associated with that patient, upon which the infusion devices 21 of the selected infusion system 2A, 2B, 2C are displayed, denoted in Fig. 4A by "pump 1 " to "pump 7" constituting active infusion devices 21 and "pump 8" to "pump 12" constituting currently inactive, non-used infusion devices.

Of the active infusion devices 21 the user may select a particular infusion device 21 , for example "pump 6", by tapping onto the field associated with that infusion device 21 , upon which information relating to an infusion operation carried out by that infusion device 21 ("pump 6") is displayed as illustrated in Fig. 4B. For example, the drug infused, the infusion rate, the volume left and the time left may be displayed to the user.

If during an infusion operation carried out by a particular infusion device 21 of an infusion system 2A, 2B, 2C an alarm condition arises, a corresponding message may be displayed on the infusion management device 22 the user is currently attending to, as it is shown in Fig. 4C. Depending on the priority of the alarm condition, it may for example be suggested to the user to silence the alarm, as illustrated in Fig. 4C, which the user may simply confirm such that no alarm sound is issued at the remote infusion system 2A, 2B, 2C (but for example only a visual alarm such as a message on a display). If a high priority alarm condition arises, in contrast, the user may be forced to attend to the patient at which the alarm condition is present. Possibly, the alarm condition may be displayed on the infusion management device 22 the user is currently attending prior to an alarm signal being raised at the remote infusion system 2A, 2B, 2C. Hence, the user may silence the alarm before an alarm signal even sounds at the remote infusion system 2A, 2B, 2C, such that unnecessary alarm signals are avoided at the remote infusion system 2A, 2B, 2C.

Once the user has silenced the alarm, this may be displayed in the overview of the infusion device 22 associated with an infusion system 2A, 2B, 2C, as illustrated in Fig. 4D, for example by displaying a suitable symbol in relation with that particular infusion device 21 (in the example "pump 6").

The idea of the invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, but may be carried out in an entirely different fashion in entirely different embodiments.

In particular, different infusion systems may use different infusion devices such as a volumetric infusion pumps or syringe infusion pumps to carry out different infusions, for example to administer a medication or a nutritional solution or any other medical solution to a patient.

Different alarm conditions herein may arise and may cause different alarm signals, such as visual alarms or acoustic alarms. The invention herein may allow to pause an acoustic alarm and/or a visual alarm such that an alarm condition may be attended to remotely.

List of Reference Numerals

1 Application system

2A, 2B, 2C Infusion system

20 Rack

21 Infusion devices

22 Infusion management device

220 Input device (touch-sensitive display)

23 Communication connection

24 Infusion set

3 Server

30 Communication connection

4 Central management device

40 Communication connection

A, B, C Patient

N User (nurse)

S1 -S6 Steps

Claims

Claims:

1 . Application system (1 ) for controlling infusions to a multiplicity of patients (A-C) in a healthcare environment, the application system comprising:

- a multiplicity of infusion systems (2A-2C) for providing infusions to a multiplicity of patients (A-C), each infusion system (2A-2C) comprising at least one infusion device (21 ) for administering an infusion to an associated patient (A-C) and an infusion management device (22) for controlling the at least one infusion device (21 ), the infusion management device (22) being constituted to output information relating to an infusion and having an input device (220) allowing a user (N) to input control commands relating to an infusion, and

a communication network connecting the multiplicity of infusion systems (2A-2C) to allow for a transmission of data in between the infusion systems (2A, 2C), characterized in that the infusion management device (22) of at least one of the multiplicity of infusion systems (2A-2C) is constituted to output information relating to an infusion operation carried out by another infusion system (2A-2C) of the multiplicity of infusion systems (2A-2C), wherein the input device (220) of said infusion management device (22) of the at least one of the multiplicity of infusion systems (2A-2C) is configured to allow a user (N) to input a control command relating to an infusion operation carried out by said other infusion system (2A-2C).

2. Application system (1 ) according to claim 1 , characterized in that each infusion management system (22) of each of the multiplicity of infusion systems (2A-2C) is constituted to output information relating to an infusion operation carried out by another infusion system (2A-2C), wherein the input device (220) of each infusion management device (22) is configured to allow a user (N) to input a control command relating to an infusion operation carried out by said other infusion system (2A-2C).

Application system (1 ) according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that said infusion management system is configurable by a user (N) to select a subset of infusion systems (2A-2C) of the multiplicity of infusion systems (2A-2C) to output information relating to infusion operations carried out by said subset and to input control commands relating to infusion operations carried out by said subset.

4. Application system (1 ) according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the communication network comprises a server (3) being in communication connection with the multiplicity of infusion systems (2A-2C).

5. Application system (1 ) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that said infusion management device (22) is constituted to output information relating to an alarm condition of an infusion operation carried out by another infusion system (2A-2C) of the multiplicity of infusion systems (2A-2C), wherein the input device (220) of said infusion management device (22) is configured to allow a user

(N) to input a control command relating to said alarm condition.

6. Application system (1 ) according to claim 5, characterized in that said infusion management device (22) of said at least one of the multiplicity of infusion systems

(2A-2C) is configured to output information relating to the alarm condition prior to the other infusion system (2A-2C) outputting an alarm indication.

7. Application system (1 ) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that each infusion system (2A-2C) comprises a rack (20) and a multiplicity of infusion devices (21 ) arranged on the rack (20).

8. Application system (1 ) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the infusion systems (2A-2C) are located remote from one another, in particular in different locational areas of a healthcare environment.

9. Application system (1 ) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized by a central infusion management device (4) connected to the communication network, the central infusion management device (4) being constituted to output information relating to infusion operations carried out by the multiplicity of infusion systems (2A- 2C) and to allow a user (N) to input control commands relating to infusion operations carried out by the multiplicity of infusion systems (2A-2C).

10. Method for operating an application system (1 ) for controlling infusions to a multiplicity of patients (A-C) in a healthcare environment, the method comprising: operating a multiplicity of infusion systems (2A-2C) for providing infusions to a multiplicity of patients (A-C), each infusion system (2A-2C) comprising at least one infusion device (21 ) for administering an infusion to an associated patient (A- C) and an infusion management device (22) for controlling the at least one infusion device (21 ), the infusion management device (22) being constituted to output information relating to an infusion and having an input device (220) allowing a user (N) to input control commands relating to an infusion, and communicating data, via a communication network, in between the multiplicity of infusion systems (2A-2C), characterized by outputting, on the infusion management device (22) of one of the multiplicity of infusion systems (2A-2C), information relating to an infusion operation carried out by another infusion system (2A-2C) of the multiplicity of infusion systems (2A- 2C),

- inputting by a user (N), on the input device (220) of said infusion management device (22) of the one of the multiplicity of infusion systems (2A-2C), a control command relating to an infusion operation carried out by said other infusion system (2A-2C).