Suzanne,
Are you taking pumping characteristic curves into account as part of your study? At one Hospital i worked at, fast acting (inotropic) drugs were used at very low rates (2ml/hr). If you analyse the infused flow and represent it as a graphical display, some pumps have a smooth flattish line, some pumps are more erratic, and others have square wave. It depends on the type of pump head in the device. I believe using the wrong pump can diminish/alter the effectiveness of the drug. One ITU nurse i spoke to noticed a patients blood pressure was up and down (in a regular pattern) even though they were delivering the correct drug.
When we looked at the pump being used it was delivering 2ml/hr over the hour, but it was up to 100% over or under infusing over a shorter timescale, which became apparent when we looked at the graphical output. It mirrored the patients blood pressure problem and enabled us to stop the use of that pump for certain drugs.
If you have a friendly EBME manager, I would ask him to give you some graphical printouts for different types of infusion devices at low, medium, and high rates.
ps. i haven't voted on your pole because don't really understand the poll.
