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Monday, April 14, 2008

NutriThrive Sponsors Oley Foundation's 2008 Child of the Year Award

(Cincinnati, Ohio) April 14, 2008 – NutriThrive™, a division of BioRx, one of the nation’s fastest growing providers of specialty pharmaceuticals, will sponsor the Oley Foundation’s 2008 Child of the Year Award, as a Golden Medallion Partner. The Award is given annually to a child requiring home intravenous nutrition or tube feeding, in recognition of their positive attitude and inspiration to others.

The following are the criteria for the Child of the Year Award:

· 18 years of age and under

· Home parenteral and/or enteral nutrition consumer

· On homePEN for at least one year

· Shows a positive attitude in dealing with their illness and therapy which encourages and inspires others

All nominations are due by April 25, 2008, and may be submitted through the Oley Foundation’s website at: www.oley.org/nominateform.html. The winner will receive a partial travel grant to the Oley Foundation’s annual conference in San Diego, CA (June 26 to 30), where The Child of the Year Award will be presented during an awards program on June 27. In addition, the winner will be spotlighted in the LifelineLetter, the organization’s newsletter. Recognition will be given to all nominees.

About the Oley Foundation

The Oley Foundation, a non-profit organization based at Albany Medical Center in New York, is dedicated to enhancing the lives of those who require home infused (parenteral) and tube feeding (enteral). The Foundation offers programs that educate members about the therapy that sustains them, provides outreach and networking opportunities that remove isolation and create a sense of normalcy - motivating members to play an active role in decisions being made the Foundation.

About NutriThrive

Based in Cincinnati, NutriThrive is a division of BioRx, a national pharmacy, and specializes in highly customized care for the individuals requiring intravenous nutrition and tube feeding. As one of the nation’s fastest growing providers of nutritional therapy, the company’s clinical staff reaches patients and physicians in 48 states. To learn more about NutriThrive, visit its website at www.nutrithrive.com

Press Contact:

Judith Cline

Tel: 866.44.BIORX or 866.442.4679

Email: jcline@biorx.net

This page was last modified on April 23, 2008

Website by

Christina Migliacci, Young Adult Program Development & Outreach Coordinator,

Mary-Angela DeGrazia-DiTucci, President/Patient/Founder,

and

Frank DiTucci, Computer Consultant

TUBE FEEDING MISCONNECTIONS: FATAL MEDICAL MISTAKES

Key Position Statemnt Released on Addressing This Often Deadly Error

Silver Spring, MD-April 15, 2008 The American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition announces the release of a pivotal position paper entitled Enteral Feeding Misconnections: A Consortium Position Statement, published in the May issue of The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety. The position statement brings to light an important and often fatal complication in which tube feeding formula is accidentally connected to intravenous or other lines or catheters for which it was not intended.

Patients receiving tube feeding therapy, or enteral nutrition, are unable to feed themselves and are frequently among the most critically ill patients. They often have many other types of tubes such as IVs, oxygen, or drainage tubes. An enteral tube feeding should be placed into the stomach and when it is mistakenly hooked to another of these many tubes, this is called an enteral misconnection.

One family sadly affected by this complication recently told their story to the lead author of the paper. A young pregnant woman was erroneously given tube feeding formula into her IV line, resulting in the death of her 35-week fetus, and shortly thereafter, the death of the patient as well. The patient's mother stated, "There were multiple mistakes made by more than one person that led to the death of my daughter and granddaughter. Human error, short staffing, and disregard for hospital standards all played a role in this tragedy. However, I believe if the enteral feeding bag had not been accessible to regular IV tubing the other mistakes would not have come into play."

This enteral feeding misconnections article includes a definition of the problem, descriptions and concerns with existing enteral feeding systems in the marketplace, and contributing factors that can lead to this complication. Recommended solutions are also highlighted, including changes in health care education and human factors, better purchasing strategies, and manufacturing design changes. Addressing this problem requires cooperation from the enteral equipment industry, health care purchasing groups and clinicians.

Since the collaboration of the position paper consortium began, and through advocacy efforts by many others, stakeholders are beginning discussions to initiate improvements. Manufacturers are implementing significant changes in enteral system designs and with the education of clinicians, hopefully no patient or family will have to endure this type of tragedy again.

To access this article and a companion article by Simmons et al. entitled "Error-Avoidance Recommendations for Tubing Misconnections When Using Luer-Tip Connectors: A Statement by the USP Safe Medication Use Expert Committee," published in The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, click here.

The American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (A.S.P.E.N.) is a scientific and educational organization dedicated to improving patient care by advancing the science and practice of nutrition support therapy. With more than 5,500 members, A.S.P.E.N. is an interdisciplinary community of dietitians, nurses, pharmacists, physicians, scientists, students and other health professionals from every facet of nutrition support clinical practice, research and education. www.nutritioncare.org.

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Contributors to the position paper included many organizations that monitor patient safety and wish to decrease the risk of this complication, including: the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (A.S.P.E.N.); the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) Department of Patient Safety; Institute of Healthcare Excellence, University of Texas and MD Anderson Cancer Center; Patient Safety Center for Devices and Radiological Health, U.S. Food and Drug Administration; Health Devices Group, ECRI Institute; The Joint Commission; Safety Institute, Premier, Inc.; Sharp Healthcare; and Center for Safety and Clinical Excellence, Cardinal Health.