Nursing staff raised an ergonomics and safety concern with Environmental Health and Safety, looking for a solution to improve transportation safety for patients using the Berlin Heart IKUS ventricular assist device. This patient population also required IV mounted pumps, and the potential hazards involved with an ambulatory pediatric patient, a mobile IV stand with pumps, and the IKUS device through active hospital corridors led them to turn to our IDS engineering department for help. I designed and fabricated proof of concept and fit for use prototypes to safely consolidate IV pole mounted pumps to a ‘saddlebag’ style device retrofit that were used extensively with multiple patients.
