CareFusion And Cerner Implement Integrated Solution To Help Improve Patient Safety, Streamline IV Medication Management

SAN DIEGO, Nov. 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- CareFusion Corp. (NYSE: CFN), a leading, global medical technology company, today announced the implementation of a solution that connects its Alaris^® System smart infusion pumps with the Cerner Millennium^®1 electronic health record (EHR) at Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota. The technology is designed to help reduce the risk of harmful and costly intravenous (IV) medication programming errors at the patient bedside.

Intravenous (IV) medication errors are twice as likely to cause harm to patients as medications delivered via other routes of administration.² With this new interoperability, through the Cerner CareAware iBus^™1, the Alaris system can be wirelessly pre-populated with infusion order parameters directly from the Cerner Millennium EHR. Instead of manually programming the pump using the keypad at the bedside, the pump is programmed through scanning a barcode on the smart pump via Cerner's Point of Care Medication Administration solution. Programming pumps with infusion parameters from the verified physician order helps ensure accurate medication administration and documentation and reduces opportunities for human error.

This solution covers IV medication administered through both the pump and syringe modules of the Alaris System. Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota is the first pediatric hospital system in the U.S. to enable bi-directional communication between the infusion pump and the EHR for both syringe pumps and large volume infusions.

"In today's evolving health care landscape, hospitals must effectively integrate health information technology and medical devices into their best practices in order to enhance patient safety and improve clinician workflow," said Bobbie Carroll, senior director of patient safety and informatics at Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota. "The barcode solution from CareFusion and Cerner helps us do both of those things, while further securing the health and care of our patients."

The solution helps ensure more consistency in medication management practices and provides comprehensive, near real-time data to help staff in the pharmacy and patient care areas view infusion status and documentation through Cerner CareAware Infusion Management^™1 with nursing, pharmacy and ICU dashboards. Approximately 225 of Children's of Minnesota's 347 beds are considered critical care and those patients require a substantial volume of high-risk infusions.  

Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota recently received the Process/System Innovation Award from the Minnesota Alliance for Patient Safety. The award honored their implementation of barcoded medication administration and infusion interoperability solutions, which was reported to reduce adverse medication events from seven in 10,000 to two in 10,000 and triggered 234 medication alerts or "good catches" out of 11,000 doses in one month on one unit.

"Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota shares our vision of using technology to improve the quality of care and ultimately, drive better outcomes," said Tom Leonard, president of Medical Systems at CareFusion. "Intravenous medications represent 61 percent of the most serious and costly medication errors.³ By creating a solution that helps them preprogram their infusion pumps and automate medication documentation, we can help hospitals improve patient safety and workflow efficiency, which also can help reduce the total cost of care."

In 2010, CareFusion and Cerner entered into a strategic agreement to closely integrate their market-leading technologies to develop solutions that help hospitals and health care providers deliver better patient care through greater system connectivity and interoperability. Since that time, the companies have connected CareFusion's Pyxis® automated medication dispensing  and supply management systems, Alaris® infusion pumps and the CareFusion Ventilation System with Cerner CareAware iBus and Cerner Millennium, enabling hospitals to achieve greater device interoperability to enhance patient safety and clinical workflows.

CareFusion and Cerner are exhibiting at next week's American Society of Health System Pharmacists (ASHP) Midyear Clinical Meeting Dec. 2-6, at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas, where both companies will be showcasing the interoperability of Alaris infusion pumps and the Cerner EHR.

For more information, visit http://www.carefusion.com/emrinteroperability.

About CareFusion
CareFusion (NYSE: CFN) is a global corporation serving the health care industry with products and services that help hospitals measurably improve the safety and quality of care. The company develops market-leading technologies including Alaris® infusion pumps, Pyxis® automated dispensing and patient identification systems, AVEA®, AirLife™ and LTV® series ventilation and respiratory products, ChloraPrep® products, MedMined® services for data mining surveillance, V. Mueller® surgical instruments, and an extensive line of products that support interventional medicine. CareFusion employs more than 15,000 people across its global operations. More information may be found at www.carefusion.com.

¹ Millennium, CareAware iBus and CareAware Infusion Management are all registered trademarks of Cerner Corporation, Kansas City, Mo.

² "Proceedings of a summit on preventing patient harm and death from IV medication errors," American Journal of Health System Pharmacy, Dec. 15, 2008, 65:2367-2379.

³ D. W. Bates, personal communication, Oct. 2001.

SOURCE CareFusion Corp.