Oct. 29, 2009 (PR Newswire) --
LAKE FOREST, Ill., Oct. 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Today Hospira, Inc. (NYSE: HSP) celebrates the 25th anniversary of its market-leading patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) infusion system. Introduced in 1984, Hospira's PCA was the first pump of its kind, revolutionizing pain management. It was a simple concept: patients know best when they are in pain, so allow them, within limits, to control their medication. Over the past 25 years, PCA technology has improved the safety and quality of care for patients around the world. With more than 53,000 units in use today and 60 percent market share, Hospira's PCA device has evolved into an essential pain management tool for healthcare professionals.
When the original system, PCA Classic, was introduced, it was fairly straightforward - hook up the I.V. bag and give patients control over their pain, allowing them to initiate their pain medication when needed. The device offered a complete, secure, pain-management system behind a locked door and with pre-filled medication vials - a first in the industry.
PCA Classic was closely followed by a design-enhanced version that offered new modes of delivery; PCA II was introduced in 1988. This system served the pain management sector for nearly 14 years.
In 2001, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations set new national standards, formally recognizing pain as the "fifth vital sign" - in addition to pulse rate, breathing rate, temperature and blood pressure - in assessing how a patient is faring.
Following closely on the heels of the Joint Commission's standards, the third-generation device, LifeCare(TM) PCA3 was introduced in 2002 with an important new safety feature - integral barcoding technology. This feature enabled the system to read barcodes on individual medication vials (pre-filled or pharmacy-generated), and then identify the drug name and concentration, automatically populating the information into the pump. This novel technology decreased the dangers of inadvertent human error and significantly reduced the risks associated with under-/over-medication dosing, due to wrong concentration.
With a constant focus on best practices and improving interoperability in hospitals, Hospira released the current generation, LifeCare PCA(TM), in 2006, offering a product fully integrated with Hospira MedNet(TM) safety software. The innovative compatibility with Hospira MedNet, a customizable software system that defines medication dose limits and tracks I.V. drug delivery, helps to further prevent medication errors and improve patient safety. This enhancement put LifeCare PCA in a class of its own as the first pain management infusion device to offer these advanced safety features.
