Connected Health

Thank you MinniVAN for the opportunity to speak on a topic that is key to creating successful vascular access programs.  “Educating the Entire Team”  Download the ppt presentation  below: minnivan

Are we seeing an increase in this complication of VAD’s post PICC and Midline placement?  It seems like I have been getting more calls on this complication.  We need to prevent this complication with our patients.  Are we measuring the

Rounding has become an important aspect of patient care.  It gives the health care team an opportunity to get together and discuss the needs of the patient in front of the patient.  More importantly it gives the patient a feeling

At AVA and I am hearing a lot of discussion on UE DVT’s.  We all know this can be a complication of PICC line insertion, but how are we treating UE DVT’s?   Some nurses state “our docs want the

Central-line associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) pose a immediate danger to vulnerable patents, infection prevention guidance is imperative for assisting acute care hospitals in prioritizing prevention efforts.  Approximately 41,000 cases of CLABSI occur in U.S. hospitals annually, increasing length of stay

Our Vascular Access Team has been looking at how to implement clinically indicated removal of the PIV vs routinely removing the device at 96 hours.  We first brought the idea to our Nurse Managers and DON.  We wanted to get

When it come to the Affordable Care Act and reimbursements, we need to understand the  programs and what they mean for our facilities: What is Hospital Value-Based Purchasing? The Hospital Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) Program is a Centers for Medicare &

Recently the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released its Healthcare Association Infection (HAI) report showing progress in reduction of HAI’s, however there is still room for vast improvement.  http://www.cdc.gov/hai/pdfs/stateplans/factsheets/wi.pdf The 2012 occurrence of Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infections (CLABSI)

Since the 1960’s the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been investing heavily in the understand and prevention of central line-associated bloodstream infections.  That investment has paid dividends, based on the findings in a study from Health Affairs (http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/33/6/1040.abstract).

Here is a great article on why we draw blood cultures, and what we do with it.  Please share with all new nurses and new staff.  I also found this as a good review for myself. http://labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/blood-culture/tab/test