TITLE:
Reducing the Prevalence of Catheter-Related Infections by Quality Improvement: Six-Year Follow-Up Study
AUTHORS:
Dan Malm, Bo Rolander, Eva-Marie Ebefors, Lisa Conlon, Annette Nygårdh
KEYWORDS:
Bloodstream Infection, Peripheral Venous Catheter, Quality Improvement, Thrombophlebitis
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Nursing,
Vol.6 No.2,
February
16,
2016
ABSTRACT: Background: Peripheral venous catheter (PVC) insertion is a crucial nursing action during life support. Several factors that increase the risk of thrombophlebitis associated with PVCs have been reported. Objective: We wish to evaluate the impact of a quality improvement regarding PVC treatment for patients with coronary heart diseases. Method: A longitudinal, quantitative observational study was carried out in 2008 and 2013 in a hospital in southern Sweden with 360 consecutive patients suffering from acute chest pain. New routines for PVC treatment were included in the hospital with daily inspection according to a checklist. A structured observation protocol was used to survey the prevalence of thrombophlebitis between 2008 and 2013. Also, we examined the relationship between the location and luminal diameters of PVCs. Results: The student’s t-test showed significant differences between 2008 and 2013 with respect to luminal diameter of PVCs (p = 0.002), prevalence of thrombophlebitis (p = 0.003) and number of days with PVC left in situ (p