IV Pumps--have you used Baxter's Sigma Spectrum??

PeteyPie · Mar 15, 2011

We have been using these for the last couple of months, and I really love them. They are expensive though, at around $4000 a pump.

ChocoholicRN · Mar 15, 2011

We have been using them for a while now. At first I wasn't sure about them, but they are very user friendly, the screen is clear and easy to read. The only flaw is that sometimes the alarms are TOO sensitive. Like if there is an upstream occlusion, you can fix every part of the tubing give times and it will still alarm. But I would rather have them be TOO sensitive then not alarm at all. Overall I am very happy with them, and we are actually getting updates on the pumps soon so I am excited to see what happens!

divaRN* · Mar 16, 2011

My hospital recently switched to these. I do not like them. Mainly because the tubing is cheap. I brought up problems I was having with priming the tubing to the rep and her response was "yea that happens". Great. I also agree that the upstream occulsion alarm is very sensitive. You CAN NOT bolus 1L/hr with these pumps because it will alarm every second. Even at 500ml/hr it STILL alarms ALL THE TIME. There is no way to disable this alarm either (we were able to disable it on our old pumps so I wouldnt have this problem). Now I only bolus to gravity because I do not have the time to be in and out of a room silencing the alarm when there is nothing wrong.

star77, MSN, RN · Mar 16, 2011

Yes- I have used these in two different ERs. I have heard there is a "Level 1 override for boluses" and I have yet to see it. (BS.) I pressure bag or use our Level 1 for severely hypotensive patients. As to pharmacologic safety, yes they're great, but often have A LOT of safety traps - and often the tubing takes that extra 30s to load that you just don't have in the ED. We do NOT use them for blood, I don't use them for ABX like rocephin or cefepime, but they are great for a lot of other meds, including high risk/buretrol-worthy meds like heparin or insulin. They are easy to transport, and are much safer than the Alaris, I have to say. For those days when it's my 6th in a row and I'm dog-tired, I love 'em. When it's my first on, I could scream. And yes, they are VERY sensitive. Like any piece of equipment, you learn as you go.

AKav8trix · Mar 17, 2011

My hospital recently switched to these. I do not like them. Mainly because the tubing is cheap. I brought up problems I was having with priming the tubing to the rep and her response was "yea that happens".

What problems are you running into with priming the tubing? I think I've used most of the different brands out there at one time or another for primary drip tubing and they all seem to prime about the same. What's different about the tubing for these pumps?

MunoRN, RN · Mar 27, 2011

Sigma spectrums are currently in recall, we ordered more of them almost two years ago and still don't expect them for at least another 6 months, the ones we already have aren't going to be replaced for another 6 months to a year, which means we are stuck using the backcheck valve "fix" in the mean time.

divaRN* · Mar 27, 2011

What problems are you running into with priming the tubing? I think I've used most of the different brands out there at one time or another for primary drip tubing and they all seem to prime about the same. What's different about the tubing for these pumps?

I am not sure what is different about the tubing but sometimes to fluid will not flow through it no matter what you do. I have had this problem with primary tubing and secondary tubing. I have also had problems back priming the secondary tubing.

sfrirn · Sep 11, 2011

We recently purchased these pumps. I do not like them at all. If I had a dollar for every time I had to go into a room to answer an "upstream occlusion" alarm when there was no occlusion...I could retire today. We have had these less than a year, and this is by far the most annoying feature. This feature gets really ridiculous when you are infusing 10 or more gtts.

The first week that we had these...my husband (also an ICU RN) was shocked (literally....not figuratively) when the circut blew in the holding deck after being plugged in. The holding deck is waaaay heavy and cumbersome. It can take like 20 minutes (no joke) to get like 9 gtts going. They do not hold a charge for long either...which is really great on the way down to CT with vented/hypotensive patient on multiple pressors...

The inability to bolus at 1L/hr is also really annoying...especially in a trauma icu that only has 2 level 1 infusers. Who designed that feature?

On the upside...the display is nice...easy to read...and user friendly. Some of the pre-programmed limits are likely useful if you are new to nursing and not familar with parameters for gtt infusion. I find that often having to scroll through all of these slows me down, though. All in all...I think that there are likely far better choices out there than these.

Larry77, RN · Sep 11, 2011

We are currently making the switch to these pumps...I hadn't heard they were recalled? I know the older Baxter's are recalled but these are supposed to be the new great thing. Advantages that we are told are central medication database for easier WiFi updates and ease of use and transport d/t being small. I worry about theft and pumps being left at other hospitals where pt's are being transported to.

murphyle, BSN, RN · Sep 13, 2011

I had to deal with the Baxter pumps on one rotation in nursing school, and wasn't a fan. They errored "Upstream Occlusion" if you so much as sneezed, and we frequently had problems with a very poorly programmed infused medications library. For example, there were entries for ciprofloxacin and ceftriaxone, but not for vancomycin or gentamicin, the two antibiotics you really should be running on pump. And then there was the day we found out that the library didn't include nitroglycerin of all things, and on a tele/cardiac progressive floor no less - they had to hand calculate from mcg/min to mL/hr, a disaster waiting to happen. Hospital pharmacy said "there's a fix coming," that never showed up in the six weeks we were on that floor. As you can well imagine, our instructor told us in no uncertain terms not to go within six feet of anything other than maintenance fluids on pump!

My home hospital uses Alaris, and to the best of my knowledge we've never had a problem with them. They're rather on the bulky side, and it's a pain in the neck if you're running more than four meds over pump, but we've never had a problem with safety and Pharmacy is good about getting meds updates out to us quickly and reliably.

Anna Flaxis, BSN, RN · Sep 13, 2011

We were using the backcheck valves for a time, because, I was told, the pumps could error and allow free flow, so all of our pumps had to be fixed.

Here's a link to some error reports that I came across today while researching blood transfusion: http://www.patientsville.com/medical-device/sigma-smart-pump-sigma-international-quality.htm

As far as the upstream occlusion, I've found that if I keep the length of tubing between the drip chamber and the pump short, I don't have this problem. A longer length seems to add to the amount of pressure the pump has to overcome, causing it to alarm an occlusion when there is not.

Overall, despite the little bugs, I like them. They are lightweight and user friendly once you get used to them. The biggest thing for me is remembering to press "ok" to verify every setting. If you just input your setting and then arrow down to the next, it defaults to zero, which can be maddening when you're in a hurry.

Since we were previously using Baxter Colleague Guardians before, we didn't have to switch tubing, and I really have no problem with the Baxter tubing.

Despite the little annoyances, it sure beats hauling around those old Baxter triple channel pumps!!!!