Description:

The Baxter Flo-Gard 6201 is a pole-mounted, single-channel infusion pump that uses a linear peristaltic mechanism to deliver virtually any IV fluid—crystalloids, blood, lipid emulsions or epidurals—at rates from 1 mL/hr up to 1,999 mL/hr. Users can program primary and independent secondary (piggy-back) infusions, build ten-step ramp or taper profiles, or let the pump auto-calculate rate from volume-and-time entries. Three-level upstream/downstream occlusion sensing, ultrasonic air-in-line detection (≈75 µL/50 µL), an automatic tubing safety-clamp, and keep-vein-open fallback at 5 mL/hr protect the patient, while an RS-232-C port allows remote monitoring or nurse-call integration. A sealed 12 V lead-acid battery supplies around six hours of cordless run-time and recharges to 80 % in eight hours; the bright front-panel display and back-lighted keypad keep programming straightforward on busy floors.

Economic Advantage:

When it reached the market in the early 1990s, the Flo-Gard 6201’s big draw was economical standard-set delivery: unlike cassette pumps that demanded proprietary disposables, it ran on Baxter’s inexpensive “s-designation” gravity sets that many hospitals already stocked. The ability to reconfigure alarms, occlusion thresholds, and baud rates in-house, plus the built-in RS-232 port for central monitoring, kept capital and service costs low while extending service life—one reason refurbished 6201s are still common in teaching hospitals and veterinary clinics today.