Simulating whole-body vibration for neonatal patients on a tire-coupled road simulator.

Exposure to excessive whole-body vibration is linked to health issues and may result in increased rates of mortality and morbidity in infants. Newborn infants requiring specialized treatment at neonatal intensive care units often require transportation by road ambulance to specialized care centers, exposing the infants to potentially harmful vibration and noise. A standardized Neonatal Patient Transport System (NPTS) has been deployed in Ontario, Canada, that provides life saving equipment to patients and safe operation for the clinical care staff.

Difficulty Using Smart Pump Logs to Recreate a Patient Safety Event: Case Study and Considerations for Pump Enhancements.

The authors present a case in which a physical anomaly with an infusion pump resulted in an unforeseen fault that the nurse's attempts to resolve unknowingly exacerbated. This case study presents the first report in the literature to detail the difficulty in recreating a patient safety event using smart pump logs, support server continuous quality improvement (CQI) data, and the drug order entry system to elucidate the clinical scenario. A 75-year-old male patient presented to a major teaching hospital and was admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) with a massive gastrointestinal bleed and myocardial infarction, then stabilized.

Inadvertent overinfusion of norepinephrine using infusion pump loading dose.

Programming infusion pumps has been recognised as a high-risk step and a source of adverse events (Nuckols et al., 2008; Hyman, 2010). Literature describing infusion pump loading dose errors and NORepinephrine complications is scarce (Girard et al.

Thrombosis and failure of a HeartMate II device in the absence of alarms.

Next-generation left ventricular assist devices such as the HeartMate II (Thoratec Corporation, Pleasanton, CA) have significantly improved patient outcomes. In particular, the incidence of thromboembolic events appears to be significantly reduced. Pump thrombosis has occurred, however, and is well reported in the literature.