System for maintaining drug information and communicating with medication delivery devices

Abstract

A system for maintaining drug information and communicating with medication delivery devices includes software designed for use in a hospital, pharmacy or biomedical technical service environments. The software may be provided on a computer readable medium. The software allows a facility to customize a drug library with both hard and soft drug limits and other parameters for use with an infuser having a plug and play module removably inserted into a slot within a housing, or for use with an infuser having a connectivity engine enclosed within the housing. The system supports data transfer to one or more infusers connected to one or more computers. The connection between the computer and the pump can be hard wired or wireless.

1 .- 218 . (canceled) 
     
     
         219 . A method of administering medication to one or more patients, the method comprising:
 providing a host computer;   providing a plurality of medication administering devices, each device having a controller for controlling the operation of the device and one or more storage locations for storing information relating to the operation of the device;   providing a communication link between the host computer and the plurality of medication administering devices;   exchanging information between the host computer and medication administering devices; and   generating one or more reports relating to the operation of the plurality of medication administering devices.   
     
     
         220 . The method of  claim 219 , wherein the plurality of medication administering devices send event logs to the host computer, and wherein the one or more generated reports includes event log information from at least one of the medication administering devices. 
     
     
         221 . The method of  claim 220 , wherein the generated reports includes statistical data relating to event logs from a plurality of medication administering devices. 
     
     
         222 . The method of  claim 220 , wherein the plurality of medication administering devices log override data relating to user overrides of device parameter limits. 
     
     
         223 . The method of  claim 222 , wherein the plurality of medication administering devices send the override data logs to the host computer, and wherein a report is generated based on the override data logs. 
     
     
         224 . The method of  claim 223 , wherein the generated report indicates the number of times users have overridden device parameter limits. 
     
     
         225 . The method of  claim 223 , wherein the generated report indicates the number of times users have declined to override a device parameter limit. 
     
     
         226 . The method of  claim 219 , wherein the one or more reports include information relating to the operation of one or more of the medication administering devices. 
     
     
         227 . The method of  claim 219 , further comprising storing exchanged information from the plurality of medication administering devices to build a database of device information. 
     
     
         228 . The method of  claim 227 , further comprising generating a report including statistics relating to the drugs administered by a given set of medication administering devices. 
     
     
         229 . The method of  claim 219 , wherein the communication link is a wired network. 
     
     
         230 . The method of  claim 219 , wherein the communication link is a wireless network. 
     
     
         231 . The method of  claim 219 , wherein the host computer and plurality of medication administering devices format messages using an extensible markup language (XML). 
     
     
         232 . The method of  claim 219 , wherein the medication administering devices are infusion pumps. 
     
     
         233 .- 241 . (canceled)