Which of the following describes a common infusion-pump error?

• A. Incorrect rate.
• B. Wrong patient matching label.
• C. Expired battery.
• D. Library mismatch in pump programming.

Answer: (A)

Focusing on how infusion pumps deliver medication, the rate at which a drug is infused is the parameter clinicians adjust most often. If that rate is entered incorrectly or misread, the patient can receive too little or too much drug in a given period, which can quickly become dangerous with many IV meds. Small mistakes—such as decimal misplacement, mixing up units (mL per hour versus mL per minute), or selecting the wrong rate on the keypad—can lead to large swings in dose. That’s why an incorrect rate is the most common infusion-pump error: it directly changes the amount of drug delivered over time and has immediate safety implications.

The other issues listed are real risks but are less typically categorized as the classic, frequent infusion-pump error. A wrong patient matching label is a patient-identification/medication administration problem rather than a pump parameter error. An expired battery causes a device failure or interruption, not a misdelivery amount. A library mismatch in pump programming is a specific systemic error that can happen, but it’s not as routinely encountered as the everyday rate-entry mistakes that clinicians make when programming pumps.