When our hospital system went to all saline flushes and were working on the HIT problem, we developed a sticker to be used by all people who insert central lines. It includes:
Catheter name
Manufacturer
Catalog/reorder #
Lot #
Heparin coated or not? Y and N boxes
Cath length
Tip location
Site
Inserted by
This little sticker is only 2 and 1/2 inches by 2 inches. Any other information is documented in writing. We usually write in if ultrasound and/or MST is used, number of attempts, quality of blood return, number of ports (i.e.single or double lumen), and patient tolerance of the procedure
We added the heparin coated question to keep up with all heparin coated catheters inserted to look for exposures to heparin...sometimes when a company is backordered on one product, they will substitute another that may be heparin coated and they do not necessarily inform the hospital of the difference. This helps up keep that data.
It has worked well so far, and it is simple enough that it can be used in all areas, not just for the PICC Team. The physicians also use it.
Donna Gordon
