Medical apparatus with patient data recording

Abstract

An infusion apparatus for infusing liquid into a patient over an infusion period beginning with an initial infusion and ending with a final infusion and during which infusion period all relevant infusion data is stored in a non-volatile memory to generate a complete historical record of the infusions administered during the infusion period. The infusion apparatus is provided with a housing, a pump disposed in the housing and adapted to pump liquid through a conduit, and a controller operatively coupled to the pump to cause the pump to deliver a plurality of infusions of liquid medicant during the infusion period, each of the infusions being made at a time and a flow rate. The infusion data stored in the non-volatile memory may include programmed infusion data input to the infusion pump during programming of the pump, the programmed data including data representing the infusion mode, the infusion flow rate, the volume to be infused, and the infusion start time. The infusion data may also include data representing the time at which each infusion was made during the infusion period and the flow rate at which of each infusion was made. The automatic recording of the infusion data during the programming and operation of the infusion apparatus will generate a complete historical data record, which is advantageous in that the data record can be later retrieved from the non-volatile memory and used for various purposes, including clinical purposes to aid in determining how effective a particular infusion therapy was and treatment purposes to confirm that the prescribed infusion was actually delivered to the patient.