I am just wondering how often dressing changes are done in other facilities. We are new vascular access dept. up and running for almost a year now. We insert PICC's, plus we also do surveillence on all central lines, including all triple lumens, swans , IABP, PICC"S, PAC, and hemo catheters. We site check them every day and make sure dressings are changed on time, sites look good and dressings are intact. We also do most of the dressing changes and keep tract of when they are due etc. How often does everyone change dressings? We do all lines every 4 days, PAC we reaccess every 7 days, and PICC"s we change dressings on every 7 days we don't do a 24 or 48 hr. change because we place a biopatch on with insertion and don't use guaze. Just wondering if we can do it different if anyone else does and if so where I can find the literature to support it. Thanks.
CDC recommendation is at least every 7 days for transparent dressings and at least every 48 hours for gauze