Ask a ward how many infusion pumps it has and you will get a number. Ask where they all are right now and the answer is a search - two on poles in bays, one in the clean utility room, one that went to theatre with a transfer, and one “with EBME” for so long nobody remembers sending it. Community teams have it harder: their pumps sit in patients’ homes at the end of a treatment course, waiting for a collection nobody’s list is driving. Pumps are small, valuable, safety-critical and constantly in motion, which makes them the clearest case in healthcare for tracking assignments rather than counting boxes.
What you will learn
- Where pumps go
- Check-outs, not counts
- The pump record
- Labelling pumps
- Servicing, history and field-safety notices
- Spreadsheets vs a live register
- FAQ
Where pumps go
Pump fleets shrink in four quiet ways:
- They follow patients. A pump travels with a transfer to another ward or theatre and becomes part of that area’s unofficial stock. Multiply by months and every ward is convinced it owns fewer pumps than it should.
- They get squirrelled. Because pumps are scarce at 3 a.m., staff cache them. A hidden pump is unavailable stock that still shows in the count.
- They go home. In community and hospital-at-home models, the pump is in a patient’s house by design. Without a recorded assignment and an expected return, end of treatment is where pumps fall off the map.
- Repair becomes a black hole. A faulted pump leaves for servicing with no record of which one went or when.
None of this is fixed by buying more pumps. It is fixed by knowing, per pump, who has it.
Check-outs, not counts
The working model is a lending library. A pump is either in a named store, or checked out to a ward, a team or a patient:
- Issue: record who took it and when. For community use, set an expected return tied to the treatment plan; for ward stock, an open-ended assignment to the ward is fine.
- Transfer: a pump that moves with a patient gets re-assigned, not forgotten. The receiving area scans it and takes it over - the history of handovers is what makes the record believable.
- Return: check the pump in, note its condition, and send it through cleaning before it re-enters the store.
- Chase from the list: the overdue and still-out view is your recovery worklist. A pump that shows as “with patient, treatment ended last week” gets a collection visit; a pump that was never checked out gets nothing, because nobody knows it is gone.
Writing this expectation down - every pump has a named holder, no exceptions - is a sensible line in your asset management policy, so the habit survives staff turnover.
The pump record
| Field | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Asset ID | Short, printable, quotable - the serial number is too long for a phone call |
| Make and model | Different models mean different giving sets, training and service kits |
| Pump type | Volumetric, syringe, ambulatory - availability questions are always type-specific |
| Serial number | The key that matches your fleet to manufacturer field-safety notices |
| Current holder or location | Ward, team, patient or store - the question everyone actually asks |
| Status | In use, in storage, in repair, retired - keeps the bench queue visible |
| Purchase date and price | Replacement planning and insurance |
| Warranty end date | Decides whether a repair is free or invoiced |
| Service due and history | The evidence that the pump was fit for use, attached to the pump itself |
Labelling pumps
Pumps are handled constantly and disinfected between patients, so labelling is mostly a materials question:
- Small polyester or laminated QR labels survive wipe-downs; paper does not.
- Place the label on the casing away from the screen, controls, door and pole clamp - somewhere a gloved hand will not wear it away.
- Never cover the manufacturer’s rating plate. The serial and model plate must stay readable for servicing and safety notices; your label is in addition to it, not over it.
- Label the carry case for ambulatory pumps too. Cases and chargers go missing on their own schedule.
Tip: print the asset ID in large type under the QR code. Phone-camera scanning is the fast path, but the night shift reading an ID over the phone to switchboard is the fallback that keeps the system working.
Servicing, history and field-safety notices
A pump’s record is also its safety file:
- Planned servicing: record last service and next due per pump, and attach the service report. “Is this pump in date?” should be answerable at the bedside, not by ringing the workshop.
- Fault history: log every issue against the pump with a description and photos. A pump that keeps coming back with the same alarm is a candidate for retirement, and the pattern is only visible if reports accumulate on one record.
- Field-safety notices: manufacturers recall by serial range. A register with serials and current holders turns “are we affected?” into a filter, and “where are the affected pumps?” into a list with names on it. The same logic applies to your defibrillators and other electromedical kit. If you buy through a distributor, your register also gives equipment suppliers the serial detail they need to handle warranty and notice queries quickly.
Spreadsheets vs a live register
A spreadsheet pump list fails for one structural reason: it stores a snapshot, and pumps move daily. The person handing a pump to a transferring patient is not going to open a shared workbook from the corridor, so the sheet decays until someone declares an amnesty and recounts the fleet - which fixes the number for a week.
AMPthilly is built around the events instead. Each pump has a profile with serial, type, warranty, service documents and photos; check-outs and returns to wards, departments or external assignees are recorded with dates and a permanent audit history; faults become tickets tied to the pump; and the QR label opens the pump’s record in any phone browser with no app install, so the handover and the record update are the same gesture. The free plan covers 3 users and 25 assets - a realistic pilot for one ward’s pump fleet - and /features/ covers the modules above that.
FAQ
How do you keep track of infusion pumps? Library model: unique ID, durable label, and every handover recorded as a check-out to a ward, team or patient. Assignments stay true; location snapshots do not.
What should an infusion pump register record? ID, make/model, pump type, serial, current holder, status, purchase and warranty dates, service due and history - with the serial as the recall key.
How do community teams track pumps in patients’ homes? Check the pump out to the patient with an expected return at end of treatment. The overdue list becomes the collection worklist.
How do you label an infusion pump? Small laminated QR label on the casing, clear of controls, vents and the manufacturer’s rating plate. Label ambulatory cases separately.
How do you track infusion pump servicing and recalls? Keep service dates and reports on each pump’s record. When a field-safety notice lands, filter by serial and you have both the answer and the locations.
The takeaway
Infusion pumps are too mobile for a count and too critical for guesswork. Label every pump, check each one out to a named holder, record transfers when pumps follow patients, and keep servicing history on the record itself. The fleet stops shrinking, the 3 a.m. hunt gets shorter, and a recall becomes a filter instead of a crisis.