Reducing infusion pump network congestion by staggering updates

A method to provide update data to a plurality of infusion pumps configured to deliver medication to one or more patients within a clinical environment, each infusion pump of the plurality of infusion pumps comprising memory configured to store operational software and one or more drug libraries, the method comprising:

• receiving the update data over a second network that provides communication outside of the clinical environment;
• storing the update data within the clinical environment as blocks of update data;
• receiving a request for update data over a first communication channel of a first network from one or more infusion pumps of the plurality of infusion pumps, the first network being within the clinical environment;
• and
• staggering streaming of the stored blocks of update data to a group of requesting infusion pumps over a second communication channel of the first network, wherein the group of requesting infusion pumps comprises a predetermined number of infusion pumps that is less than all of the plurality of infusion pumps.

An apparatus to provide update data to a plurality of infusion pumps configured to deliver medication to one or more patients within a clinical environment, each infusion pump of the plurality of infusion pumps comprising memory configured to store operational software and one or more drug libraries, the apparatus comprising:

• a processor comprising one or more hardware computers;
• and
• a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, configure the apparatus to:
• receive the update data over a second network that provides communication outside of the clinical environment;
• store the update data within the clinical environment as blocks of update data;
• receive a request for update data over a first communication channel of a first network from one or more infusion pumps of the plurality of infusion pumps, the first network being within the clinical environment;
• and
• stagger streaming of the cached blocks of the update data to a group of requesting infusion pumps over a second communication channel of the first network, wherein the group of requesting infusion pumps comprises a predetermined number of infusion pumps that is less than all of the plurality of infusion pumps.