I also have some reservations about this issue of rates of PICC
infection.
In my experience we had only IV nurses inserting and
administering all IV medications through the PICCs we inserted on the
general med-surg units. ICU did give their own meds. We had no
documented PICC infections for about 10 years. Then the team was
downsized and med administration went over to the staff nurses,
meaning many nurses had their hands on the PICC hubs now. And they
have seen a rise in PICC related infections. So there is a lot to the
point about not only who is inserting, but who is managing the hub
manipulation. Lynn
At 8:00 PM -0500 2/7/06, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
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
--
Lynn Hadaway, M.Ed., RNC, CRNI
Lynn Hadaway Associates, Inc.
126 Main Street, PO Box 10
Milner, GA 30257
http://www.hadawayassociates.com
office 770-358-7861
Lynn Hadaway Associates, Inc.
126 Main Street, PO Box 10
Milner, GA 30257
http://www.hadawayassociates.com
office 770-358-7861
