A system and method are provided to associate a medication name with an infusion pump and to communicate that association to a patient data management system (PDMS) for display and monitoring. In the case where the infusion pump does not contain a library of selectable medical fluid names that includes the name of the medical fluid to be infused, a separate computer will display a list of medical fluid names for the infusion pump and the operator may select the name of the medical fluid for that infusion pump. The computer will then continually associate that medical fluid name with that infusion pump and communicate the association to the PDMS. In the case where the infusion pump is capable of accepting an upload of new medical fluid names, the computer will upload an abbreviated list of fluid names so as not to overburden the computer with the transfer of large amounts of data.
