Hospira and Bridge Medical Announce Agreement to Develop New Medication Management Solution for Use at the Patient Bedside

DALLAS -- Hospira, Inc., a leader in the development of medication delivery systems, and Bridge Medical, a patient safety software and services company, and subsidiary of

AmerisourceBergen Corporation, today announced a development agreement to

create a new, wireless point-of-care medication management solution that links

intravenous (IV) devices at the patient bedside with bar-code enabled

medication administration verification systems. The integrated solution will

help improve patient safety, enhance patient care, optimize clinician workflow

and facilitate hospital quality improvement efforts.

The combined offering will integrate Hospira MedNet with the Bridge

MedPoint system. Hospira MedNet is a customizable safety software that

helps hospitals define medication dose limits and track IV drug delivery to

help prevent and manage errors. Bridge MedPoint is the industry's top-ranked

patient safety software that incorporates bar-code scanning, expert clinical

knowledge bases, sophisticated warnings and alerts, wireless networking and

integration capabilities to help caregivers intercept potential clinical

errors at the patient bedside.

"The collaboration between Hospira and Bridge will result in more options

and greater flexibility for the growing number of hospitals investing in bar

code point-of-care technologies," said John Arnott, senior vice president,

global commercial operations, Hospira. "By integrating our infusion therapy

devices with both the MedNet and MedPoint platforms, we can continue to

accelerate the development of technology-driven solutions to help hospitals

manage the delivery of I.V. medications."

Barcode-enabled point-of-care (BPOC) systems are designed to help prevent

errors at the point in the medication administration process where errors most

frequently reach the patient. BPOC systems can help ensure the "five rights"

at the bedside: right drug, right patient, right dose, right time and right

route of administration. The new integrated system will close a critical gap

in safe medication delivery by incorporating five-rights checking into the

infusion device programming process.

"Smart pumps and BPOC systems are two proven and effective technologies

available today for the elimination of preventable medication errors," said

Denean Rivera, president, Bridge Medical. "By integrating our products, Bridge

and Hospira will provide a comprehensive point-of-care medication safety

solution that reaches across all routes of administration and delivers five-

rights safety to all patients. These integrated systems provide hospitals

committed to patient safety with an even smarter infusion administration

solution."

    With the new solution, wireless communications modules integrated into the

Hospira infusion devices will provide two-way communication with Bridge

MedPoint. This interoperability allows patient order information to be checked

through Hospira MedNet, which determines whether the ordered dose of

medication is within the hospital's best practice guidelines. MedPoint ensures

that there is a match between the medication and dose ordered by the physician

and the correct patient as well as provides safety checks for patient

allergies and high-risk medications. The system confirms the match to the

caregiver at the patient bedside. Because settings based on the physician's

order will now be transmitted electronically from MedPoint to the Hospira

infusion device, caregivers will no longer have to manually enter drug, dose

and infusion rate, eliminating the opportunity for a programming error.

Source: Hospira, Inc.

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