The Best Practice of infusing vasopressors with a central line is great. We at our institution hav attempted to establish this. The problem is that when the Vascular Access Team points this out the Physicians say "put in a PICC". We have 2 full staff members on our team. We are in the same situation you are. We also do a fairly extensive consult on the patient. What is the past medical hx, current underlying problems, past surgeries, were they "PICCable" in the past, and here is the kicker. How many drips, medications, IVF are they on for sedation and vasopressors? Are all of them compatible? Can everything go through a dual lumen? Does the patient have the vasculature for a Triple lumen? Most of our patients do not have the vasculature for a triple lumen PICC. We off the physicians two duals and also with the caveat that we use Groshong PICC's for the most. If this patient tanks and they need to use the rapid infuser there may be a problem. Most of the physicians end up placing a non-tunnled TLC for 7-10days and the patient stabilizes out and we then place a PICC.
Our nurses are calling for central access faster than the physicians can think of it and if we consult the patient prior to a MD order then we state in our consult if the patient is "PICCable" or due to incompatibilities or vasculature the patient needs a TLC for a short time. Don't know if this helps, will be looking forward to others answers. Betsy Harmon RN BSN CRNI Vascular Access Team Critical Care Unit Alaska Narive Medical Center Anchorage, Alaska [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----- Original Message ----- From: "Wendy Boersma" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, January 03, 2006 12:29 PM Subject: Vasopressors > I would just like to hear from those who have a policy regarding the > infusion of vasopressors with a central line. The big push right now is > that all vasopressors must be infused via a central line. I'm not > arguing this to be a bad point with the exception that they would like > this to be a PICC Line. This supports the use of PICCs within the > facility but unfortunately there is not adequate staff to facilitate > this practice. > > So I am wondering what others are doing. Maybe this will increase > staffing and coverage to 24/7..... :) > > Wendy Boersma, RN, BSN, CRNI > Throughput and PICC Services Manager > 269-966-8591 or pager 269-410-0385 > > > This message may contain confidential information protected by law > through attorney-client privilege or professional peer review/quality > evaluation privilege. It is intended only for the individual or entity > named above. It is prohibited for anyone else to disclose, copy, > distribute or use the contents of this message. If you received this > message in error, please notify the BCHS Privacy/Integrity Office at > [EMAIL PROTECTED] or (269)966-8017. > >
