I am a member of an IV therapy/PICC team. I tabulate our monthly phlebitis statistics. Until recently, I thought there was a national benchmark to keep our phlebitis rates under 7-8%. Our rates are at or below 1%; however, I'd like to have a measurable goal to compare our rates to the rest of the nation.
According to the Infusion Nursing Standards of Practice the acceptable peripheral-short catheter phlebitis rate should be 5% or less in any given population. You can find this info on page S59-L. S59-M gives you the formula to use to calculate the phlebitis rate. Infusion Nurses society is a national nonprofit organization that sets standards in infusion therapy. I'm not quite sure if this answers your question but I hope it helps.
Thank you so much. This does answer my question.
Is there still a bench number phlebitis and if so where do I find it?
NO. You will find rates in a number of published studies but that is all. The only national database is for CLABSI at the CDC.
Lynn Hadaway, M.Ed., RN, NPD-BC, CRNI
Lynn Hadaway Associates, Inc.
PO Box 10
Milner, GA 30257
Website http://www.hadawayassociates.com
Office Phone 770-358-7861
You are looking at a very old copy of the INS Standards. That 5% guideline was removed at least 10 years ago. Those page numbers in the 2016 most recent edition is not about phlebitis at all.
Lynn Hadaway, M.Ed., RN, NPD-BC, CRNI
Lynn Hadaway Associates, Inc.
PO Box 10
Milner, GA 30257
Website http://www.hadawayassociates.com
Office Phone 770-358-7861
Thats what I figured as the post was several years old and I could not find a benchmark in the 2016 standards. I was just curious and had used phelbitis rates from several PIV studies in a presentation for our patient care leadership including our CNO who asked if there was a national benchmark. The rates of phlebitis in the studies seemed quite high compared to ours. My presentation was on IV complications reates (phlebitis & infiltration) after shifting our PIV policy to the clinically indicated model. Our phlebitis rates have remained between 2% and 4% post policy change. Our infiltration rates have also remained between 2% & 4% after the policy chance and a heavy educational roll out to nursing staff. Tracking retrospectively through Epic flowsheet LDA reporting and comparing to filed incident reports.
Andrew Walker BSN, RN, VA-BC, CRNI, PCCN