Does anyone use the Cerner Millenium Bridge product for blood product administration recording?  Our transfusion services were interested in this product now that we have upgraded to a compatible version.  Somehow nursing derailed this without transfusion service involvement so I am trying to learn more about the product before I approach the nursing informatics team.  I am interested to learn if it has been successful, positives and negatives, anything anyone is willling to share.

Thanks!

  We use the Bridge Transfusion. The biggest plus to it, if used properly, is that the wrong unit can't be transfused to a patient. It uses positive patient ID to identify the patient before being transfused. One of the problems we had when we started was the scanners. They didn't seem to hold configuration for the nurses to use it. They also sometimes had trouble especially on off shifts and had nobody that could reset passwords for them.

    I would say the only place we have a problem with nursing using Bridge is the ER. Bridge does have a quick start if it is a true emergency. All in all I don't like it as well as our last system for transfusion which was SOFT but it does work.

We have been using Bridge Transfusion for about 6 months.  On the whole nursing likes it.  The positive patient ID scanning process than occurs at bedside, has allowed us to remove the second RN check before starting transfusions.    Most common problems we have encountered:

1.  Scanners - wireless scanners seem to lose configuration often.  Reseting scanners occurs frequently but it is done with a barcode scan being place on each scanner base so it doesn't take long to reset.

2.  Nurses often scan wrong thing in wrong prompt are - lots of training and retraining needed to occur.

3.  Nurses forget to end transfusion in Bridge.  We were on paper before Bridge so needing to end a transfusion in the computer is new to them and something we are still working on getting better compliance.

 

Things BB likes about Bridge:

Better Postive Patient ID, computer doesn't allow transfusion to start if error occurs in scanning process.

Better documentation in patient chart with accurate start and end times and vitals all recorded on same summary page. 

End times from Bridge flow to Cerner pathnet so more accurate transfusion time tracking on BB side.