A financial evaluation of the Becton Dickinson 360 infuser system

The cost effectiveness of a new syringe infuser system for intermittent delivery of drugs was compared to current methods (69% minibags, 30% frozen commercially available minibags, and 1% premixed minibags) of delivery. All costs including labor, equipment, raw drug, labeling, supplies, and wasted drug were compared. Personnel costs were calculated using time and motion studies performed by a third party. There were minimal problems associated with using the new infuser system, all of which were corrected as the system was implemented. Eighty-two percent (82%) of intermittent drugs (remaining was 17.4% minibags; 0.6% pre-mix) could be converted to this system. Initially, more time was associated with preparing syringes versus minibags, but after a short learning curve, time differences were insignificant. The time to prepare commercially available pre-mixed i.v.'s and frozen minibags (retrieve and label) was 1.02 minutes compared to 1.61 minutes to prepare a traditional minibag and 1.62 minutes to prepare a syringe. There was a $0.98 savings/dose preparing 82% of our intermittent doses in syringes versus our current system. This extrapolated to an annual savings after the first year of $74,230, which was 28.0% of our i.v. admixture system costs. The BD 360 Infuser System is a significant cost savings device for intermittent drug delivery.