Number To Know…710
Executive Summary
Infusion pumps, used in abundance in hospitals but prone to error, caused 710 patient deaths between 2005-2009.
710 is the number of patient deaths resulting from the 56,000 adverse infusion-pump events recorded by US FDA between 2005-2009. During this time, 87 pumps were recalled. Additionally, a 2007 report from the Institute of Medicine stated that dealing with patient safety issues resulting from infusion pumps costs the health-care system $2bn annually. One of the keys to addressing this problem lies in improving the devices’ interoperability with hospital IT systems.
To find out more about what the big infusion-pump players are doing to resolve this problem, read Medtech Insight’s market intelligence feature here.