Audit of peripheral venous cannulae by members of an IV therapy forum

'How many audits do you really need?': Learnings from 5-years of peripheral intravenous catheter audits

BACKGROUND

Peripheral intravenous catheters (PIVCs) are medical devices used to administer intravenous therapy but can be complicated by soft tissue or bloodstream infection. Monitoring PIVC safety and quality through clinical auditing supports quality infection prevention however is labour intensive. We sought to determine the optimal patient 'number' for clinical audits to inform evidence-based surveillance.

METHODS

We studied a dataset of cross-sectional PIVC clinical audits collected over five years (2015-2019) in a large Australian metropolitan hospital. Audits included adult medical, surgical, women's, cancer, emergency and critical care patients, with audit sizes of 69-220 PIVCs. The primary outcome was PIVC complications for one or more patient reported symptom/auditor observed sign of infection or other complications. Complication prevalence and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated. We modelled scenarios of low (10%), medium (20%) and high (50%) prevalence estimates against audit sizes of 20, 50, 100, 150, 200, 250, and 300. This was used to develop a decision-making tool to guide audit size.

RESULTS

Of 2274 PIVCs evaluated, 475 (21%) had a complication. Complication prevalence per round varied from 7.8% (95% CI, 4.2-12.9) to 39% (95% CI, 32.0-46.4). Precision improved with larger audit size and lower complication rates. However, precision was not meaningfully improved by auditing >150 patients at a complication rate of 20% (95% CI 13.9%-27.3%), nor >200 patients at a complication rate of 50% (95% CI 42.9%-57.1%).

CONCLUSION

Audit sizes should be 100 to 250 PIVCs per audit round depending on complication prevalence.

Routine versus clinically indicated replacement of peripheral intravenous catheters: a randomised controlled equivalence trial

BACKGROUND

The millions of peripheral intravenous catheters used each year are recommended for 72-96 h replacement in adults. This routine replacement increases health-care costs and staff workload and requires patients to undergo repeated invasive procedures. The effectiveness of the practice is not well established. Our hypothesis was that clinically indicated catheter replacement is of equal benefit to routine replacement.

METHODS

This multicentre, randomised, non-blinded equivalence trial recruited adults (≥18 years) with an intravenous catheter of expected use longer than 4 days from three hospitals in Queensland, Australia, between May 20, 2008, and Sept 9, 2009. Computer-generated random assignment (1:1 ratio, no blocking, stratified by hospital, concealed before allocation) was to clinically indicated replacement, or third daily routine replacement. Patients, clinical staff, and research nurses could not be masked after treatment allocation because of the nature of the intervention. The primary outcome was phlebitis during catheterisation or within 48 h after removal. The equivalence margin was set at 3%. Primary analysis was by intention to treat. Secondary endpoints were catheter-related bloodstream and local infections, all bloodstream infections, catheter tip colonisation, infusion failure, catheter numbers used, therapy duration, mortality, and costs. This trial is registered with the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry, number ACTRN12608000445370.

FINDINGS

All 3283 patients randomised (5907 catheters) were included in our analysis (1593 clinically indicated; 1690 routine replacement). Mean dwell time for catheters in situ on day 3 was 99 h (SD 54) when replaced as clinically indicated and 70 h (13) when routinely replaced. Phlebitis occurred in 114 of 1593 (7%) patients in the clinically indicated group and in 114 of 1690 (7%) patients in the routine replacement group, an absolute risk difference of 0·41% (95% CI -1·33 to 2·15%), which was within the prespecified 3% equivalence margin. No serious adverse events related to study interventions occurred.

INTERPRETATION

Peripheral intravenous catheters can be removed as clinically indicated; this policy will avoid millions of catheter insertions, associated discomfort, and substantial costs in both equipment and staff workload. Ongoing close monitoring should continue with timely treatment cessation and prompt removal for complications.

FUNDING

Australian National Health and Medical Research Council.

The determination of record-keeping behavior of nurses regarding intravenous fluid treatment: the case of Turkey

Record-keeping is one of the legal and professional responsibilities of nurses. This study aims to determine the record-keeping behavior of nurses regarding intravenous fluid treatment (IVFT). The study was conducted with 150 nurses working in adult clinics of a 936-bed university hospital. The most frequently fulfilled record-keeping behaviors were solution type, total solution amount, and date of treatment. The least frequent fulfilled behaviors were the diagnosis of patients and the time of passage of medication added to the solution. The nurses never recorded type of i.v. fluid treatment, complications, and discontinuation of therapy. According to findings of the study, the record-keeping behavior of nurses regarding IVFT is not at the desired level.