According to reports made to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) between 2005 and 2009, more than 56,000 adverse events and 700 patient deaths were linked to infusion pumps. One out of 378 post-surgical patients are harmed or die from errors related to the infusion pumps that help relieve pain after surgical procedures, such as knee or abdominal surgery.
In a recent interview, Pat Iyer, MSN, RN, LNCC, president of avoidmedicalerrors.com, Cindy and Brian Abbiehl of A Promise to Amanda Foundation, and Michael Wong, JD of the Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety discussed patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) pumps and 4 risks when using patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) pumps. Continue reading “3 Risks with Managing Pain with Patient-Controlled Analgesia (PCA) Pumps”