Hello all...
Our department places Bard Power Picc's for inpatient and outpatiens. For our inpatients we use a flush protocol of 10ml NS q12h, and use a nexus valve for positive pressure. For outpatients we place a clave (preferred by the infusion centers/home health agencies) and heparinize with 100units/ml, 3ml. We heparinize the outpatients because we do not know how much time will lapse before they get their infusions set up.
Today we had an outpatient that will not be seeing her Dr for her next chemo treatment for a week. I was concerned that she did not have flushing supplies at home. The Cancer Center instructed us to heparinze with 5000units/ml heparin, 0.5ml in each port. This seemed reasonable and we did it as a verbal order. However, it is not anything we as a department have seen before. The Cancer Center does this so that the patients do not have to regularly flush the catheter between weekly infusions. My obvious concern would be that the infusion nurses down the line would be aspirating the heparin before infusing.
Also, we trim our PICC's.....so some are 55cm, some are 30cm. How on earth can you standardize the volume?
Is anyone else out there using a similar protocol? Does it work?
Thanks!
Martha