JPH04322661A - Detection enunciating system for flow rate of liquid - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce services of nurses by reporting the completion of dosing a liquid medicine to a nurse station with wireless in a dripping to a patient. CONSTITUTION:A medicine liquid is sent to a drip needle 10 at the tip of a tube 9 from the bottom of a bottle 5 holding a medicine 4 for dripping. A drip quantity detection sensor 6 is provided in the course of the tube 9 to detect the presence of a flow of the medicine liquid and the results are sent to a nurse station together with identifying information by a wireless signal. The detection sensor 6 is provided with a light emitting element and a photodetecting element to detect the presence of the medicine liquid passing therebetween. This can lessen burden on a nurse and allows the removing of the drip needle 10 immediately after the completion of dosing a medicine thereby reducing pains of the patient.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

[Industrial Application Field] The present invention automatically monitors the dosage of liquid intravenous medicine used for patients in hospitals, etc., and sends a wireless signal when a predetermined dosage has been completed. This invention relates to a system that reduces nurses' work by notifying the nurses' station.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 6 shows the administration of liquid medicine for intravenous drip, which is used for patients in hospitals and the like. A bottle 5 containing an intravenous drug 4 is placed on a stand 11 at a location higher than the position of a lying patient, and the drug is inserted into the patient with an intravenous needle 10 to perform treatment. Note that a flow rate monitor 15 (visual monitoring) for monitoring the flow rate and a flow rate regulator 16 (manual adjustment) for adjusting the flow rate are installed between the intravenous medicine 4 and the intravenous needle 10. has been done. The duration of this regimen is usually 6
This takes about 0 minutes, but in some cases it may take longer. While the medication is being administered, nurses from the nurse's office come to check on the patient several times. After making several rounds, the nurse confirms that all of the intravenous medicine 4 has entered the patient's body, and then pulls out the intravenous needle 10 from the patient. The medication regimen is now complete.

0003

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] The conventional method of dispensing liquid drugs for intravenous drip as described above is a primitive method in which a nurse comes several times from the nurse's station to check the situation. There was a problem. Nurses are in charge of a large number of patients, and they perform a variety of tasks at the same time, such as administering an intravenous drip to some patients, taking temperatures to other patients, and administering subcutaneous injections to others. It has been extremely difficult to provide nursing care that satisfies patients for treatments that require a long time from start to finish, and the time required varies from case to case. In other words, the time required for intravenous therapy varies greatly depending on the type and amount of liquid drug used for intravenous infusion, as well as the age and constitution of the patient, and although the time required to complete an infusion can be predicted to some extent based on nurses' experience, others If a staff member has many important tasks to perform, it is difficult to accurately patrol the patients undergoing intravenous infusion treatment, and it is extremely difficult to go to the infusion patient accurately at the scheduled end time. Ta. Furthermore, the method of relying on patient's nurse calls had problems in terms of reliability of treatment.

Therefore, in the conventional method of administering liquid drugs for intravenous infusion, the nurse is removed from other important treatments, or when the infusion is nearing completion, the frequency of patrols from the nurse's station is increased, or the nurse is forced to stop administering intravenous treatment. They had no choice but to take measures such as waiting at the site. If this was not done, the patient would be forced to have an intravenous needle inserted even though the intravenous drip had been completed, resulting in significant pain. On the other hand, nurses also had the trouble of coming on patrol multiple times to check on the situation, which was an issue that needed to be resolved as it contributed to the need for more labor.

[0005] An object of the present invention is to automate the monitoring of the completion of administration of intravenous liquid drugs, which has conventionally been carried out by nurses. The nurse's station will come to the nurse's office several times to confirm the amount of liquid medicine used in the intravenous drip treatment used for patients at hospitals, etc., and automatically check the dosage and complete the administration of the predetermined amount. In addition to being able to notify the nurse's office by radio signal, if necessary, it is also possible to check the progress of the intravenous drip treatment, and to notify the nurse that the entire amount of medication has been administered or is about to do so. This relates to a system that alleviates women's work and patients' pain.

[0006]

[Means for solving the problem] In order to unattend the monitoring of the dosage of liquid drugs for intravenous drip, which has been performed by nurses, an optical detector is installed to detect the end of the drug administration, and the administration of the drug is completed. When it detects that something has happened, it transmits this information via a wireless signal to a center device installed in the nurse's station, and the center device transmits this information by an acoustic signal such as voice or an electric display on a display board. A system was created to notify the nearest nurse.

[0007]

[Operation] An optical drip amount detection sensor is installed at the part of the thin tube that connects the container containing the liquid drug for intravenous drip and the drip needle inserted into the patient's body, reducing the amount of drug passing through the detection sensor. When it is detected that something has disappeared or has disappeared, an electrical signal is output, which is converted into a wireless signal and transmitted from the detection sensor's antenna. After this radio signal is received by the radio receiving section of the center device installed in the nurse's station, it is displayed on the display section or output as an audio signal to notify the nurse. Upon hearing this, the nurse can identify the patient undergoing intravenous drip using the ID (self-identification information) of the detection sensor output as a display or audio signal. Therefore, when the nurse goes to the patient, the nurse can remove the intravenous needle from the patient's body, where the intravenous drip has just been completed, and can provide satisfactory nursing care to the patient.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 shows how the drip amount detection sensor 6 is installed. An intravenous drip amount detection sensor 6 is installed directly below the bottle 5, which is a container for storing the intravenous medicine 4, and below it,
A flow rate monitor 15 for visually monitoring the flow rate and a flow rate regulator 16 for manually adjusting the flow rate are attached to the tube 9,
At the tip of the tube 9 is an infusion needle 10.

The main parts of the drip amount detection sensor 6 are shown in FIG. 2(a).
This is a type of light amount detector as shown in ~(d). L is a light emitting element, LED (Light Emitting
A laser beam or white light is focused using a lens or the like. The light emitted from the light emitting element L is transmitted inside the transparent detection box B (Ba, Bb) (Fig. 2 (
a), (c), (d)) or inside the bottle 5 (Fig. 2 (
Depending on the amount of the intravenous drug 4 in b)), the direction of travel of the light changes to the direction shown by the dashed line, the dashed-dotted line, or the solid arrow. In the traveling direction indicated by the solid arrow, the light receiving element D1 (
D1a), a light receiving element D2 is located in the light traveling direction indicated by the dashed-dotted arrow, and a light receiving element D3 (D3a, D3b) is located in the light traveling direction indicated by the broken arrow.

[0010] The changes in the amount of the intravenous drug 4 and the changes in the traveling direction of the light will be explained with reference to FIG. In FIG. 3(a), the liquid level A1 of the intravenous drug 4 is high, and the light from the light emitting element L is transmitted to a point P on the side of the detection box B (same for bottles 5 and below when corresponding to FIG. 2(b)). Angle θ1 with respect to the normal of
When it enters the detection box B, the intravenous drug 4
Since the refractive index of is greater than 1, the angle θ2 with respect to the normal
(θ1 > θ2), and when it exits from point R1 on the side surface of detection box B, it is emitted again at an angle θ1 with respect to the normal to the side surface of detection box B, and is detected by light receiving element D1 such as a light receiving diode. Ru.

FIG. 3(b) shows a case where the liquid level has dropped to the level A2 due to the outflow of the intravenous medicine 4. Since the liquid level A2 is slightly above the light incident point P, the first half of the optical path (up to point Q) passes through the intravenous drug 4, and the second half passes through the air, which is detected by the light receiving element D2. . At this point Q, part of the light is reflected back into the intravenous drug 4. Here, the light arrival point R2 is clearly at a higher position than R1.

In FIG. 3(c), the dripping medicine 4 continues to flow out, and the liquid level decreases to liquid level A3, which is slightly below the light incident point P. Therefore, the light does not pass through the liquid of the intravenous drug 4 from the beginning, but passes through the air, reaches point R3, and is detected by the light receiving element D3. Here, the arrival point R3 of the light is clearly above the point R2.

From the above operation, the light receiving elements D1, D2, D
3, it has become clear that the detection signal is output as the outflow amount of the intravenous medicine 4 increases in this order.

FIG. 4 shows a drip amount detection sensor 6 that adds ID, which is sensor identification information, to this detection signal and sends it out as a wireless signal, and a center device 20 that receives it. To explain the operation of the electric circuit shown in FIG. 4, the drip amount detection sensor 6 includes a light source 18 including a light emitting element L, and light receiving elements D1, D2, and D3 that detect light from the light source 18, and output a detection signal. The photodetectors 19-1, 19-2, 19-3 output to the wireless transmitter 35, the ID adder 12 for adding the ID of the drip amount detection sensor 6 to the detection signal, and each photodetector 19-1. ~Detection signal and ID from 19-3
A wireless transmitter 35 is included for transmitting the ID from the assigner 12 to the center device 20 as a wireless signal. Photodetectors 19-1 to 19-1 each including light receiving elements D1 to D3
The infusion status, information indicating that the infusion is about to be completed, or infusion completion information from 9-3 is added with the ID (self-identification information) of the infusion amount detection sensor 6, and then converted into a wireless signal and transmitted from the antenna. Output.

[0015] In the above explanation, the number of photodetectors 19 is three, but it is clear that if you want to know the changes in the drip amount in more detail, you can increase the number of photodetectors 19. Probably. If you want to know more about the final stage of medication due to changes in the drip volume, use Figure 2 (a), if you want to know the overall changes, use Figure 2 (b), and if you want to know more about the latter half, use Figure 2 (c). As shown in FIG.
, D3b housed in the detection box Bb, and two sets are provided to achieve the purpose. Also, if you want to know more about the stage at the end of medication, please refer to Figure 2.
As shown in (d), light emitting elements L and 3 are placed below the flow rate monitor 15.
What is necessary is to install a detection box B that accommodates two light receiving elements D1 to D3.

[0016] The optical sensor described above was a rather high-class one. A simple optical sensor will be explained below. It is a method that measures the attenuation that light undergoes as it passes through a liquid. The intravenous medicine 4 is often slightly colored, such as yellow, and even if it is colorless, it is attenuated when passing through the liquid. If this principle is used, it is sufficient to install only the light receiving element D3 in FIG. 2(a), for example. When the intravenous drug 4 is full in the detection box B (or bottle 5), the attenuation is maximum, and as the amount of the drug decreases, the attenuation gradually decreases, and finally the light at the incident point P (Fig. 3) If the light does not pass through the liquid from the beginning, but instead passes through the air and reaches point R3 (FIG. 3) on the opposite side of the detection box B, the attenuation will almost disappear. However, in this example, the degree of light convergence of the light source is not very high and it is easier to use if it is slightly dispersed. When using light in such a state, the change in the light input to the light receiving element D3 becomes analogous, and therefore the change in the light input to the photodetector 19-3 (
Since the output (DC) in FIG. 4) is an analog quantity, this value may be used as is, or it may be digitized, and an ID (identification information) may be added thereto to convert it into a wireless signal.

Furthermore, if it is sufficient to judge only the presence or absence of the intravenous drug 4, the detection boxes (B, Ba,
A light emitting element L and a light receiving element D are installed facing each other on both sides of the tube 9 without any special provision of Bb), and the change in the amount of attenuation that the light undergoes depending on the presence or absence of the intravenous drug 4 is measured, and this is converted into a wireless signal. A conversion method can also be adopted.

This wireless signal is sent to the wireless receiving section 2 of the center device 20 installed in the nurses' station for reporting to the nurses.
After the signal is received at 5, it is displayed on the display section 22 or output as an audio signal from the audio display section included therein to notify the nurse. Upon hearing this, the nurse can identify the patient undergoing intravenous drip using the ID of the detection sensor 6 output as a display or audio signal. Therefore, when the nurse goes to the patient, the nurse can remove the intravenous needle 10 from the patient's body, where the intravenous drip has just been completed, and can provide satisfactory nursing care to the patient.

The system according to the present invention described above is a relatively small-scale hospital. The wireless system can be realized using a relatively simple technology such as a known technology, such as NTT's pager system.

Furthermore, since the system according to the present invention described above is implemented in a hospital, the wireless output when the output of the drip amount detection sensor 6 is converted into a wireless signal requires a specified small power of about 10 mW. The wireless power level was set to about the same level as the weak wireless power. As a result, this system does not require a radio license and is extremely easy to operate. However, as the scale of the hospital increases, it becomes difficult to operate the above-mentioned system with a specified small power of about 10 mW or less as the wireless output. Therefore, it is necessary to operate a system with wireless output that requires a radio wave license. To eliminate this problem, a distributed receiving station system described below may be adopted.

FIG. 5 shows an example of a system suitable for a large-scale hospital. In the figure, each wireless receiving section 25 installed on each floor in the hospital or at multiple locations on each floor is connected by a wire 29 to a wireless signal control section 21 installed at the center. The received signal is sent to the radio signal control section 21. The wireless signal control section 21 is connected to the display section 22. Therefore, the reception signal of each wireless reception section 25 is displayed on the display section 22 by the detection sensor 6.
ID is displayed or output as an audio signal.

[0022] Furthermore, the operation of the drip amount detection sensor 6 described above does not necessarily have to be performed all the time, and it is only necessary to perform the operation intermittently, for example, once every 10 seconds, making it possible to significantly save power. Commercial power supply (AC1
00 volts), it can be operated only with batteries, and it is suitable for making the device smaller and lighter.

It is clear from the above explanation that the intravenous drip amount detection sensor 6 described above does not have any adverse effect on the intravenous drug 4 and can be operated safely and easily by a worker such as a nurse. Will.

Although the embodiment according to the present invention described above is an example of a system in a hospital, the liquid amount detection system according to the present invention is applicable not only to a system in a hospital but also to a wide range of industrial applications that require liquid flow rate detection. It can be expected to be used in a wide range of fields.

[0025]

[Effects of the Invention] As detailed above, by using the liquid flow rate detection system according to the present invention, it becomes easier to administer intravenous liquid drugs to patients in hospitals, and the operation is also safe. In addition to significantly reducing nurses' workload, patients also benefit from improved services, and the results are significant.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an installation diagram showing the installation situation of a drip amount detection sensor according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of an embodiment of an optical sensor used as a main part of the drip amount detection sensor shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing the operating principle of the optical sensor shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a circuit diagram of a drip amount detection sensor shown in FIG. 1 and a center device that receives information from the drip amount detection sensor.

FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram showing a system configuration when the present invention is implemented on a large scale.

FIG. 6 is a conceptual diagram showing the administration status of a conventional liquid medicine for infusion.

[Explanation of symbols]

4. Intravenous medicine 5 bottles 6,6B Drip amount detection sensor 9 Tube 10 Intravenous needle 11 Stand 12 ID grant device 15 Flow rate monitor 16 Flow rate regulator 18 Light source 19 Photodetector 20 Center device 21 Wireless signal control section 22 Display section 25 Wireless receiving section 29 Wired 35 Wireless transmitter A Liquid level B Detection box D Photo receiving element L Light emitting element

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A container (5) for containing a liquid, a pipe (9) connected to the container for moving the liquid contained in the container, and a tube (9) for allowing light to enter the moving liquid. sensor means (6) for transmitting the detected information as a wireless signal, including a light emitting means (L) and a light receiving means (D) for outputting a change in the incident light as detected information regarding the moving liquid; , a reporting means (20) for receiving the wireless signal and displaying and reporting the detected information.