Re: PICC infections

[Leighannbowe]

I feel compelled to point out that not everyone has this infection rate. Our current PICC infection rate is 0.57 incidents/1000 catheter days. While this varies some, it rarely goes about 1.0/1000 days. This does not match our CVC infection rate. We are not inclined to reduce PICC usage because of this published data, because our facility data differs from that. If we were seeing the same or higher infection rate with PICCs as short-term CVCs, it would be cause for us to explore the sources of the problem, and consider the wisdom of PICC usage. Leigh Ann