NRFit Conversion in Canada

The New Connection Standard in Regional Anesthesia

NRFit is a new connection standard in accordance with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) for regional anesthesia. It is designed to increase patient safety where drugs are injected into patients, by limiting exposure to wrong route injections. To make the identification of products that follow the ISO 80369-6 norm easier for end users, a non-profit trade association called GEDSA has introduced the brand name NRFit®.

Why should your facility convert to NRFit?

• Accidental misconnections of patient lines present a patient risk, which can lead to severe and in worst case, fatal outcomes
• Misconnections are often multicausal and arise by a chaining of different, risk-promoting circumstances, such as poor visibility, multiple lines on one patient and high workload 
• Unintentional faulty connections nearly eliminated with NRFit
• Same work processes as Luer Lock with new connector
• Clear designation on products and packaging with yellow colouring
• NRFit added to product name for clarity
• 400+ conversions by Pajunk allows for experience in best practices, including designating specific areas in pharmaceutical and OR prep rooms for NRFit products, as examples

Getting started

The first step in converting your facility to NRFit is identifying the departments that use or distribute LuerLock devices for Neuraxial and Regional Anesthesia applications across the entire hospital. This includes Luer Lock devices in anesthesia, neurology, radiology, orthopaedics, pain, pharmacy, surgery, emergency, all of which will be converted to NRFit.  

Neuraxial applications include:

• Medical devices for administration of medications in neuraxial area (e.g. spinal and epidural anesthesia)
• Nerve Block procedures
• Wound infiltration analgesia
• Other regional anesthesia procedures
• Extraction & monitoring of fluid for therapeutic or diagnostic purposes (e.g. lumbar puncture)

Choosing Dyna Medical for Conversion

As the Canadian distributor for Pajunk, we are ready to help you convert to NRFit. Pajunk offers its wide portfolio in the new connection standard and has successfully converted over 400+ facilities globally to NRFit. 

Pajunk has ensured its product portfolio can support the complete hospital conversion, by offering non-Neuraxial quincke type needles utilized in other areas of the hospital. Pajunk has also made things easy for hospitals by providing full customized NRFit sets with the intention of converting entire facilities seamlessly.

Dyna Medical has taken the key learnings from Pajunk’s 400+ NRFit conversions and is ready to assist facilities Canada-wide in converting to NRFit. We will be with you every step of the way, from counseling, educating, to physical presence on conversion day. We are your partner in NRFit!

Case Study

Resources from a mass neural connector changeover

‍The first full healthcare facility in New Zealand and Australia that changed to ISO 80369-6 medical device (neural) connector standard was the Auckland District Health Board (ADHB), a facility with more than 1100 beds. This transition was the largest product change in history for them. Dr. Matthew Drake explains what is the key to success and which steps should be considered to run a smooth transition for NRFit.

Read the complete article - start at page 14

Article: Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthesia & Faculty of Pain Medicine (Spring 2021)