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What This Guide Helps With
Troubleshooting incorrect drug selections, unavailable concentrations, unexpected dose limits, soft-limit alerts, hard-limit blocks, or inconsistent drug-library programming.
Step-by-Step Troubleshooting
1. Ensure Patient Safety First
Do not troubleshoot a drug-library or dose-limit mismatch while the affected pump is actively delivering medication to a patient.
- Notify the responsible clinical staff.
- Independently verify the medication, concentration, dose, dosing unit, patient weight, care area, and programmed rate.
- Transfer the infusion to another verified pump when continued therapy is required.
- Do not bypass a hard limit or select a different medication entry merely to make the ordered dose programmable.
- Preserve the current programming and displayed messages when a medication error or adverse event may have occurred.
Expected outcome: The patient’s therapy continues safely without relying on questionable programming or an unverified drug-library entry.
2. Clarify the Reported Mismatch
Determine exactly what clinical staff encountered:
- Correct medication is missing from the drug library.
- Correct concentration or dosing unit is unavailable.
- Expected dose is above or below a soft limit.
- Pump prevents programming because of a hard limit.
- Pump displays a different limit than another Space pump.
- Medication appears under the wrong care area or profile.
- Manual programming behaves differently from drug-library programming.
- Drug-library version appears outdated.
Record the complete drug name, concentration, dose, dosing unit, care area, profile, alert text, and pump asset number.
Expected outcome: The issue is clearly identified as a programming-entry problem, library-content problem, profile-selection problem, or device-specific synchronization problem.
3. Verify the Medication Order Independently
Have the responsible clinician or pharmacist compare the intended therapy with the active medication order.
Confirm:
- Medication name
- Concentration
- Dose
- Dose unit
- Patient weight, when weight-based dosing is used
- Infusion duration
- Route of administration
- Bolus or loading-dose parameters
- Primary or secondary infusion selection
A dose-limit alert may indicate a genuine programming discrepancy rather than a pump malfunction.
Expected outcome: The medication order and intended pump programming agree. If they do not, stop and have clinical staff correct the order or programming.
4. Confirm the Correct Care Area or Drug-Library Profile
Check the care area or profile selected when the pump was started.
Examples may include:
- Adult critical care
- Pediatric
- Neonatal
- Emergency department
- Operating room
- Medical-surgical
- Oncology
Drug entries, concentrations, advisories, and dose limits may differ between configured care areas.
Do not change the care area during an active infusion solely to obtain different dose limits.
Expected outcome: The selected care area matches the patient’s location and approved clinical workflow.
5. Confirm the Exact Drug-Library Entry
Review the selected medication entry without changing the active therapy.
Check for:
- Similar drug names
- Different formulations
- Different concentrations
- Adult versus pediatric entries
- Continuous versus intermittent therapy
- Primary versus secondary use
- Weight-based versus non-weight-based dosing
- Different dosing units, such as mcg/kg/min versus mg/hr
B. Braun Space drug libraries can contain configurable medications, concentrations, soft limits, hard limits, and clinical advisories.
Expected outcome: The selected entry exactly matches the ordered medication and intended delivery method.
6. Distinguish a Soft-Limit Alert From a Hard-Limit Block
Determine which response the pump is producing.
Soft limit:
- Warns that the programmed value is outside the configured range.
- May allow an authorized clinician to confirm or override the alert according to facility policy.
Hard limit:
- Prevents programming beyond the configured maximum or minimum.
- Must not be bypassed by choosing an inaccurate drug entry or concentration.
The pump may also indicate when no drug-library limits are assigned to the selected entry.
Expected outcome: Clinical staff understand whether the pump is warning about an unusual dose or preventing a prohibited value.
7. Check Dose Units and Patient Weight
Confirm that the entered dose unit matches the medication order exactly.
Pay particular attention to:
- mg versus mcg
- mg/kg/hr versus mg/kg/min
- mcg/kg/min versus mcg/min
- units/hr versus units/kg/hr
- mL/hr versus dose-rate programming
For weight-based medications, confirm that the patient weight entered into the pump is current, clinically appropriate, and entered in the correct unit.
Do not independently determine or alter the clinical weight as a Clinical Engineering correction.
Expected outcome: The dose, unit, concentration, and patient weight produce the intended calculated infusion rate.
8. Compare the Pump With a Known-Good Space Pump
Using a pump from the same facility and intended care area, compare:
- Drug-library version
- Configuration or profile name
- Drug entry
- Available concentrations
- Dose units
- Soft-limit values
- Hard-limit behavior
- Clinical advisories
Do not use another pump’s behavior as authorization to exceed a medication limit. The comparison is intended only to determine whether one device differs from the deployed fleet.
Expected outcome: Both pumps display the same approved library information. If only one pump differs, suspect an incomplete or failed library deployment.
9. Check the Drug-Library or Configuration Version
When the version is available through the approved device-information menu, record:
- Drug-library name
- Library version
- Configuration version
- Installation or release date
- Care-area profile
- Pump software version
Compare the information with the current version approved by Pharmacy, Nursing, Medication Safety, or the facility’s infusion-pump administrator.
Do not modify the drug library directly from the pump unless that action is specifically authorized by facility procedures.
Expected outcome: The pump contains the currently approved drug library and configuration.
10. Inspect Docking and Communication Conditions
When libraries are distributed through the facility network or SpaceStation/SpaceCom environment:
- Confirm the pump is properly seated in the docking station.
- Inspect the docking and communication contacts for visible contamination or damage.
- Verify that the station has power.
- Confirm expected communication indicators are present.
- Try another known-good docking position when permitted.
- Compare whether other pumps at the same station received the current library.
B. Braun systems may distribute drug-library and configuration data through network-connected management systems.
Expected outcome: The pump establishes normal communication and receives the approved configuration through the facility’s validated process.
11. Perform an Approved Library Refresh
If the pump has an outdated or incomplete library, follow the facility’s approved deployment procedure.
This may require coordination with:
- Pharmacy
- Medication Safety
- Nursing informatics
- Clinical Engineering
- Information Technology
- The designated infusion-system administrator
After deployment:
- Allow the update to complete.
- Restart the pump only when permitted and when it is not connected to a patient.
- Confirm the new library version.
- Verify the correct care-area profile.
- Confirm the affected drug entry and limits using a nonclinical test setup.
Expected outcome: The pump displays the approved drug, concentration, dosing unit, and dose limits.
If the mismatch is corrected, complete functional verification and return the device to service according to facility policy.
12. Determine Whether the Problem Is Library-Wide or Device-Specific
If several pumps show the same unexpected entry or limit, the issue may involve the approved master drug library rather than individual pump hardware.
Do not independently edit medication limits.
Escalate the discrepancy to the team responsible for reviewing and approving the drug library. Include:
- Exact drug entry
- Care area
- Concentration
- Dose unit
- Expected limit
- Displayed limit
- Library version
- Affected pump count
Expected outcome: A suspected content or configuration error is reviewed through the facility’s formal medication-safety and change-control process.
If the Problem Persists
If the correct order, concentration, dose unit, patient weight, care-area profile, drug entry, library version, docking connection, and approved deployment process have been verified, common external causes have been ruled out.
The issue may involve:
- Corrupted or incomplete configuration data
- Failed drug-library installation
- Device communication failure
- Software or memory fault
- Configuration-management problem
The pump should be:
- Removed from service
- Labeled Out of Service
- Sent for bench evaluation or authorized repair
- Preserved without further changes when involved in a medication incident
- Referred to B. Braun technical support when required
Knowing when to stop and escalate is proper troubleshooting. Do not attempt unauthorized internal repair or locally alter clinical dose limits.
Clinical Use Tip
Never troubleshoot a dose-limit mismatch by experimenting on an active patient infusion. Move the patient to another verified pump and involve Pharmacy or Medication Safety before questioning an approved hard limit.
Work Order Documentation (CCR Method)
CCR = Complaint, Cause, Resolution
Complaint
What was reported by the clinical staff.
Example:
"Nursing reported that the Space pump rejected the ordered norepinephrine dose and displayed a hard-limit warning not seen on another pump."
Cause
What was observed during troubleshooting.
Example:
"The affected pump contained an outdated critical-care drug-library version with different norepinephrine concentration and dose-limit settings."
Resolution
What action was taken.
Example:
"Removed the pump from service, installed the currently approved drug library through the validated deployment process, verified the version and norepinephrine limits against a known-good pump, and completed functional testing."
Helpful Details to Include (If Known)
- Exact medication and concentration
- Ordered dose and dosing unit
- Patient weight used for programming
- Selected care area or profile
- Complete alert or warning text
- Soft-limit or hard-limit response
- Drug-library name and version
- Pump software version
- Known-good pump comparison completed
- Docking position or communication status checked
- Pharmacy or Medication Safety notified
- Number of affected pumps
- Final device status
- Device preserved for incident review, if applicable
Final Thought
Dose-limit mismatches must be approached as potential medication-safety events, not simply programming inconveniences. Verify the order and external configuration first, protect the patient, preserve relevant information, and escalate library-content or internal device problems through the appropriate controlled process.
That is successful troubleshooting.