Development and Evaluation of an Intravenous Infusion Sequence Annotation System

Objectives The sequence of intravenous infusions may impact the efficacy, safety, and cost of intravenous medications. The study describes and assesses a computerized clinical decision support annotation system capable of analyzing the sequence of intravenous infusions. Methods All intravenous medications on the hospital formulary were analyzed based on factors that impact intravenous infusion sequence. Eight pharmacy infusion knowledge databases were constructed based on Hospital Infusion Standards. These databases were incorporated into the computerized sequence annotation module within the electronic health record system. The annotation process was changed from pharmacists' manual annotation (phase 1) to computer-aided pharmacist manual annotation (phase 2) to automated computer annotation (phase 3). Results Comparing phase 2 to phase 1, there were significant differences in sequence annotation with regards to the percentage of hospital wards annotated (100% vs. 4.65%, chi-square = 180.95, p Conclusion A computerized infusion annotation system is efficient in sequence annotation and significant savings in tubing flushes can be achieved as a result.