Taking the Lead in Tube Feeding Safety

Nestlé HealthCare Nutrition's new SPIKERIGHT™ port for closed enteral feeding containers is designed to reduce the risk of dangerous tubing misconnection errors.

The Issue: Tubing Misconnections

Tubing misconnection errors can lead to injury or even death and thus pose a real risk to patient safety. The Joint Commission has recommended increased awareness of this issue and in 2006 released a Sentinel Event Alert to highlight the problem. In addition, the Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety has stated that preventing misconnections will require a multi-faceted effort involving clinicians, patient care facilities, purchasing groups, manufacturers and others, and reiterated the Joint Commission's call for product redesign to improve safety.¹

SpikeRight: The New Enteral-Specific Port

The SpikeRight port uses a threaded design that connects with specifically designed screw-top enteral spike sets to reduce the risk of misconnection with intravenous equipment.

Only Nestlé offers an enteral-specific port built into the closed system container - it is not an optional add-on.

An instructional video is available here.

The SPIKERIGHT™ design was incorporated into Nestlé's ULTRAPAK® closed system containers in 2008 and closed system bottles in 2009. SpikeRight-compatible spike sets are currently available for Nestlé COMPAT® pumps. In addition, SpikeRight-compatible spike sets are available from Covidien and CORPAK MedSystems.

Click here to learn more about Best Practices in Enteral Feeding Safety.