Home Health & Hospice Week

Technology may eventually lead to the near elimination of tubing misconnections. But until then, you need to work to minimize such risks, ex-horts The Joint Commission.

The accrediting body formerly known as JCAHO has issued a new Sentinel Event Alert that addresses the risks of accidental medical tubing misconnections that can cause severe patient injury or death. One example of a potentially fatal misconnection is a feeding administration tube mistakenly connected to a tracheostomy tube, the Joint Com-mission says. The risk of tubing misconnections “isn’t confined to hospitals — it also is seen in other types of health care settings, including long term care and in patients’ own homes,” stresses the Oak-brook Terrace, Ill.-based accreditor.

To help prevent the problem, the Inter-national Organization for Standardization (ISO) has developed new manufacturing standards for connectors, which include engineering specifications for small-bore connectors with an inner diameter of less than 8.5 millimeters. “The new connectors manufactured under the ISO standards will make it nearly impossible to connect tubing delivery systems that serve different functions,” the Commission says in a release.

Warning: “Although connectors manufactured to the new specifications are expected to enter the marketplace by October 2014, the old connectors will remain in use until supplies are depleted,” JCAHO says.