Smart pump technology: what we have learned.

Intravenous infusion may present the greatest preventable medication administration error risk to hospitalized patients. Smart pumps can provide clinical decision support at the bedside for nurses who are administering intravenously administered medications with the potential to significantly reduce medication errors and subsequent patient harm. However, implementations of smart pumps have yielded mixed results and mixed perceptions of their ability to actually decrease error. To realize the potential of smart pumps, there must exist a clear understanding of how these devices are being integrated into healthcare organizations, specifically nursing practice. The purpose of this article was to describe current smart pump evaluation studies and to suggest areas of future evaluation focus.