Interdisciplinary committee on infusion-control devices: managing product use.

The development of an interdisciplinary approach to the management of infusion-control devices (ICDs) in a university teaching hospital is described. An ICD committee composed of staff from the pharmacy, nursing, bioinstrumentation, and materiel management departments was created to identify and solve problems with the existing system of ICD management. These problems included untimely delivery of malfunctioning ICDs to the bioinstrumentation department for repairs, chronic shortages of ICDs, inappropriate use of these devices, and lost charges for ICDs and cassettes. The committee decided on joint control of the ICD program by the pharmacy and nursing departments. Guidelines for appropriate use of ICDs were developed and distributed to all nursing units and pharmacy satellites. The pharmacist was responsible for screening requests for ICDs to determine whether they conformed to those guidelines. New policies for delivery of malfunctioning ICDs to the bioinstrumentation department resulted in improved turnaround time for repairs. Responsibility for billing was shared by the pharmacy and nursing departments. These changes resulted in increased availability of ICDs for patient use and an increased charge capture of $247,000 per year. Through the combined efforts of the pharmacy and nursing departments in this institution, the distribution and collection of ICDs has been made more efficient and lost patient charges have decreased.