PCA Mode

Patient Controlled Analgesia (PCA) allows patients to self-administer pain medication within programmed safety limits. The SimVS-IV PCA interface includes a touchscreen pump display and a handheld patient control device.

Before You Begin

Familiarize yourself with the Generic Pump Operations before using specific pump interfaces.

Starting PCA Mode

New Patient

The PCA interface displays a "NEW PATIENT?" prompt. Select Yes to clear previous patient data or No to continue.

PCA new patient screen with blue header showing PATIENT and Yes/No buttons at the bottom

Drug Select

The Drug Select screen presents dropdown menus for:

Channel — A (default)
Category — Adult (default)
Drug — Select from the drug library

PCA drug select screen showing Channel A, Category Adult, and Drug dropdown

Select PCA Drug

Change the Category to PCA to see PCA-specific medications. For example, Morphine is a common PCA drug.

PCA drug select with Category set to PCA showing Morphine as available drug

Press Next

After selecting the drug, press Next to proceed to the PCA Mode configuration screen.

Configuring PCA Parameters

The PCA Mode screen presents the following programmable fields:

Parameter	Description	Example
Bolus Dose	Amount delivered per patient demand	0.25 mg
Lockout Interval	Minimum time between doses	0:10 (10 minutes)
Continuous Dose	Background continuous infusion rate	0.5 mg/hr
Maximum Limit	Maximum dose allowed per hour or 4 hours	2 mg/hr
Loading Dose	Initial one-time dose	0 mg

The Concentration is displayed at the bottom (e.g., 1.0 mg/mL).

PCA mode configuration screen with empty fields for Bolus Dose, Lockout Interval, Continuous Dose, Maximum Limit, and Loading Dose

Enter Parameters

Fill in each field with the prescribed values. Use the unit selectors (mcg/mg/g) to set the appropriate unit for each parameter.

PCA mode with filled parameters: Bolus Dose 0.25 mg, Lockout Interval 10 minutes, Continuous Dose 0.5 mg/hr, Maximum Limit 2 mg/hr, Loading Dose 0 mg

Press Start

Click Start to begin the PCA infusion. The Back button returns to drug selection; Clear resets all fields.

Patient Control Device

The PCA includes a handheld patient control device (shown to the right of the pump screen). The device has a single button that patients press to request a dose.

Green indicator — the device is available; pressing the button will deliver a bolus dose
Red indicator — the device is in lockout; the patient must wait before requesting another dose

PCA patient control device showing green (available) and red (unavailable/lockout) states

Lockout

When the lockout interval is active, the running screen shows detailed status:

RUNNING with elapsed time
Lockout remaining — countdown until next dose is available
Demands — total number of patient button presses
Deliveries — actual doses delivered
Continuous infusion — background rate
Total delivered — cumulative dose

An "Error: Lockout in progress" message appears if the patient attempts to request a dose during lockout.

PCA lockout screen showing RUNNING status with lockout remaining time, demands, deliveries, and total delivered dose

PCA Mode

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