Implementation of a Conceptual Computational Model to estimate the Delay Time in Drug Delivery to reduce Medication Errors in Pediatric Emergency Care

Abstract: Infusion pumps are used in all departments of a hospital, in the emergency care unit as well as in pediatrics. The pumps administer intravenous medications for the purpose of helping patients to manage pain and are unfortunately not spared from emerging errors. Due to the complexity of the process involved in infusion pumps, errors regarding delay in administration are encountered. Especially vulnerable to errors are pediatric patients, due to the high risk of over- or under-dosing. This study aims to investigate the effects on administration delay by analysing the medical supply and system utilized for the infusion pumps. This is accomplished through implementation of Compartmental Modeling in Pharmacokinetics in combination with a self developed mathematical model for estimating the administration delay. Simulations were performed for analysing how various sizes of medical supply effected delay time. The result from the computed mathematical model indicates that increased volumes on utilized equipment will increase delay time. The combined use of a decreased flow rate and smaller equipment sizes will have the greatest affects on the delay in administration. The result obtained from the computed compartmental model can be useful for medical staff to be able to estimate the delay in administration. However, further validation is required before the utilization of the model can be applied in hospitals.