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Update: Reduce the Risk for Medical Device Misconnections

Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) added a new case study to its “Examples of Medical Device Misconnections” webpage. The webpage describes device misconnections based on reports of adverse events received by the FDA and includes tips to reduce these types of events from occurring.  The new case study involves an air inflation line from a noninvasive vascular diagnostic system erroneously connected to an intravenous (IV) catheter with the same connector as a blood pressure cuff.

The FDA continues to work with manufacturers, standards organizations, federal partners, professional societies, advocacy groups, patients, and other stakeholders to reduce the chance of medical device misconnections and patient harm. The FDA encourages you to report medical device misconnections even if the misconnection was corrected without any patient harm. Increased awareness and analysis of these errors, including corrected error, can lead to improvement in patient safety.

Questions?

If you have questions about this update, contact the Division of Industry and Consumer Education.