? For those that use Alaris pumps

meadow85 · Jan 28, 2009

The MD usually gives an order like, infuse 1 unit of PRBC over 3 hrs. Depending on if the patient has had a transfusion before, their age and general health I will start the infusion at a rate slowly and if there is no reaction then increase it further to when it will infuse over 3 hrs as the MD had ordered.

I believe you can choose 'Blood Products' as the category and then 'PRBC' as an option. The Alaris pump will guide you further as to what the maximum and minimum range is.

nemo923 · Jan 28, 2009

On ours we don't have a range. We set our own rate. I start at 75 then increase to 125. Sometimes depending on how many units, I'll increase it to 135. Just make sure you choose "Blood Product" on your menu. PS, do you like your Alaris pumps? We used to use Cardinal and Baxters before. I really like Cardinal. My hospital will start using CareFusion soon, so they purchased Alaris.:roll

blinks14 · Jan 28, 2009

We use Alaris pumps with the Guardrails system for blood administration. Initially the rate is set at 120/hr for the first 15 minutes. After we do a set of vitals to check for transfusion reaction we can increase the rate to infuse the blood with 4 hours. I usually bump it up to 160/hr to infuse the blood in about 2 hours (since it's usually about 300ml/unit). However we are a certified Heart Failure unit so if it is a HF patient I leave the rate at 120 for the remaining infusion.

And to the person who asked about liking the Alaris pumps I really like the Guardrails system. All the reminders are built in to the system like using filters with certain meds, infusion time, appropriate rates. I am familiar with the Baxter pumps from another system and I liked the feature that could sense when an occlusion was not occluded (i.e. a positional site) and restart the pump automatically.

RN1982 · Jan 28, 2009

Our MDs don't tell us how many ccs/hr to run the infusion. When I used alaris pumps, I started at 100cc/hr for 15 minutes then increased the infusion up to 150cc/hr if the patient doesn't have issues with CHF or fluid overload. If I get a trauma patient though whose lost a lot of blood, I rapidly infuse.

kellykelly · Jan 28, 2009

Kind of depends on the patient and the order, though in general I run it @ 120ml/hr. We don't use a "blood products" feature on our Alaris pumps, we just set the rate.

Chaya, ASN, RN · Jan 28, 2009

Our policy is we never give blood by pump unless the pt has a central line. Then we adjust it to how long the MD says we have to give it over, with the first 15 minutes at a slower rate to watch for transfusion reactions.

ps-love the Alaris pumps once I got used to them. They seem more intuitive than any other pump I've used.

Ared1 · Jan 29, 2009

Thanks for the replies. Our Docs don't give us a rate either. We have a facility protocol. We usually start at 75ml/h then bump to 125 after 15 minutes. I do like the Alaris pumps better than others I have used. The reason I even asked the question is because I was reading some material the other day that said to start the infusion at 5ml/h! I thought surely they left off the 7.