Love or hate your IV pumps?

313RN, BSN, RN · May 4, 2012

I don't know if they beep any more than any other pumps I've used (Alaris and Baxter). I think there was more beeping early in the adoption of the pumps. Overall I think they perform well. We use multiple drug libraries (critical care, acute care, L&D, catch lab, onc, etc) and they're easy to navigate. We can program regular doses, loading doses and stepped doses as needed. There is a lot of upside to the pumps and really my only complaint is the size and weight of the triple pumps.

beckster_01, BSN, RN · May 4, 2012

I am not sure if this will be useful to you, but this is a training website that I had to use when I started my job, it might make you more familiar with the Alaris Cardinal. I am not sure the difference between this and other Alaris pumps.

http://www.choceducation.org/students/alaris/pump/menu.htm

[url=http://www.choceducation.org/students/alaris/pump/menu.htm][/url]One of my favorite features of the Alaris pump is that while it is infusing there is a pressure indicator bar. This bar will indicate how high the pressure at the tip of the catheter is, which is great for your positional central lines/PICCS. The Guardrails system is also helpful, and I am pretty sure (but not positive) that it can be set according to hospital policy.

MN-Nurse, ASN, RN · May 4, 2012

We use this one:

http://www.absolutemed.com/Medical-Equipment/Infusion-Pumps/ABBOTT-PLUM-A-PLUS-INFUSION-INTRAVENOUS-IV-PUMP-SYSTEM

It's all right. Very straightforward, easy to use. Has a cartridge you have to get used to priming, but otherwise fairly reliable.

~PedsRN~, BSN, RN · May 4, 2012

I didn't know it was possible to love an IV pump.

Air in line my ass. :no:

Seriously though, we use the Hospira Plum Pumps... and they are ok. I mean, nothing to write home to mom about... but they aren't the worst brand I've ever used either!

steffimarty · May 4, 2012

Thanks everyone for the helpful tips and feedback!

Sounds like Alaris is the crowd pleaser here.

PeepnBiscuitsRN · May 4, 2012

We use the Baxter Sigma Spectrum- it's nice because it's got all the drugs in there, and the flow rates. They suck eggs because they beep...and beep...and beep, yes, over the teeniest air bubble. And it's not that they just beep- they start off beeping softly...then get louder...and louder....AND LOUDER until the patient puts their light on and threatens to beat you, the nurse in the head with said pump. We used to use the Baxter Colleague CX- used it up until about 9 months ago or so. I liked the Colleague- it was so totally out of the 80's. OH- and you could have three lines going in one pump instead of having to order 3 pumps for one pole and yield a horrid mess.

PeepnBiscuitsRN · May 4, 2012

sigma spectrum, and i would love to put them all in the parking lot and drive over them with a tank. While the drug library's nice, the pumps beep all the time for nothing. Non-existent upstream occlusions, non-existent air in the line, you can't get a breakdown of piggybacks vs. Maint. Fluids when you clear them, and if you've got a code going on, you better just plan on ripping the bags off of the pole and using pressure bags, because you'll spend 5 minutes arguing with the programming. Buttons are small and some of our "men folk" with big hands complain it's hard to hit one button and they are always hitting two together. We asked the nurse educator who was teaching us about them (vendor from the company) if she used them at the hospital she worked at, and she said, "oh, no. It takes too much time to use them in an emergency." which we now agree with.

yes! Yes! I'll drink to that!

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · May 4, 2012

We use Carefusion Alaris volumetric pumps and Medfusion syringe pumps. I'm not a great fan of either one. The Alaris has been set up by our facility to require a bar code on our ID badges to be scanned before we can do anything with them. This is a real PITA in an emergent situation, which is a lot of the time on our unit. (Our adult ICUs had that feature disabled, but our unit-level admin won't go for that.) There are air-in-line alarms that occur more frequently than I'd like. And they use a pulse delivery system that has been demonstrated to cause huge swings in BP on many of our patients who are on syringe-pump-delivered-pressors, even when the Alaris is infusing in a different lumen. We rarely use the drug library because most of our drugs are delivered by syringe pump. Which brings us to the Medfusion. I HATE them. They take a long time to program, they take a long time to change syringes (big problem when you've got infusions with short half-lives) and they take up a LOT of space on the pole. They only have a single profile so when "our" pumps get swapped out for NICU's pumps the drug library is quite different even in how the drugs are diluted. And when we inadvertently have pumps from one of the floors, the settings are very basic - NO drug library at all. We don't have enough of them to adequately cover the beds we had when they were purchased, and we've since opened several new ones. So we're always scrounging around for these pumps. We have scads of the Alaris modules though.

OhioCCRN, MSN, NP · May 4, 2012

We use Sigma Spectrum which is great. Its a little annoying to program boluses though it never lets you override.

michellezad · Sep 17, 2012

hi there, are you still having issues with the Sigma pumps? If so - are the reasons just the same?

hdonjon · Jan 11, 2013

Just to clarify since there have been questions....Alaris used to be owned by Cardinal Health but broke off and became a separate company (Carefusion) a few years ago. If the Alaris pumps are older they say Cardinal Health and the newer ones say Carefusion. Hope that helps!!

HyperSaurus, RN, BSN · Jan 23, 2013

Alaris--I love them. The pre-programmed library is nice (guardrails, ect), they are pretty easy to use, setting up boluses is quick, and you can easily add another channel (assuming one is available).