Emergent Vascular Access for Patient Transport describes how a Vascular Access clinician utilizes her advanced knowledge and skills and remains calm and collected in a stressful situation, to place a PICC line prior to transport, in a declining patient with poor vasculature after multiple failed attempts by others. Nurse Clinicians in Action is a spotlight series highlighting some of the interesting cases that Vascular Wellness clinicians have encountered and participated in treatment. These cases involve challenging situations or intriguing clinical presentations and may involve more than one Vascular Wellness clinician as our clinicians have the ability to consult each other while in the field, as well as an on-call Clinical Administrator via a HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability) compliant communication app. In addition, our extensive training program and diverse client base, including Level 1 Trauma Centers, Short Term Acute Care Hospitals, Long Term Acute Care Hospitals, and Skilled Nursing Facilities, provide our clinicians with a wide array of clinical experience and why we believe our clinicians, as a group, are the most experienced and best trained and supported vascular access clinicians.
Emergent Vascular Access for Patient Transport
– Clinical Case
This emergent vascular access case occurred in a hospital Emergency Department where a Vascular Wellness clinician was placing a routine PICC line on a recently admitted patient. Once the Vascular Wellness clinician completed the line placement, she was approached by the hospital’s supervising nurse and asked to assess another patient for PICC line placement. This patient was critically ill and needed vascular access in order to be sent via emergency transport to a different facility. The clinician entered the patient’s room and found the entire medical team furiously working to keep the patient alive and prepare her for transport to a hospital with better resources for the treatment plan. Several attempts at placing a needed central line had already failed, the patient had coded twice, and the team was trying to stabilize a rapidly decreasing blood pressure.
Emergent Vascular Access for Patient Transport
– Diagnosis and Treatment
Realizing that central line access was critical to this emergency patient, the Vascular Access Specialist created a space to work with her ultrasound machine in the crowded and hectic room. She quickly visualized the upper arm basilic vein and determined it was an appropriate choice for vascular access. The Vascular Access Specialist understood the gravity of the situation and calmly and confidently proceeded to rapidly prep the insertion site as she had done many times before, knowing that rapid insertion can occur even while following maximum sterile barrier precautions. The care team continued to perform necessary tasks while access was being obtained. With the whole care team working and watching, access was gained, and the PICC was inserted to the correct length. The clinician announced the line was correctly placed and an x-ray was not required as she had the ECG technology that eliminated this step, allowing for immediate usage of the peripherally placed central line. The patient was immediately wheeled out to the helicopter for transport. Thrilled that his patient was now receiving therapy, enabling her transportation, the doctor expressed his sincere gratitude to the Vascular Wellness clinician.
Vascular Access Specialists
– Key Points
As Vascular Access Specialists, Vascular Wellness prides itself on bringing to every case the experience and skills learned over many years and the placement of hundreds of thousands of lines throughout diverse healthcare settings. The scope of our expertise enables us to address each situation calmly and each patient appropriately, just as the clinician did in this instance for emergent vascular access. Vascular Wellness prides itself on training its clinicians to have the skill sets needed for difficult vascular access regardless of the scenario, including hard clinical skills as well as softer skills like bedside manner and remaining calm in a stressful situation. Our clinicians can rely on the breadth of their intensive training to achieve successful access in complex patients and under challenging circumstances. In this case, our clinician placed a device that allowed for the stabilization of an emergency patient in rapid decline because she had the knowledge, skills, confidence, temperament, and ability to succeed. Readily having the skills of a Vascular Access Specialist will not only help improve patient outcomes, reduce costs, and save lives, but it will also increase the satisfaction of the care team, patient, and family members.
If you require Vascular Access or want to learn more, speak to the team at Vascular Wellness today. For the latest articles and insights, follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.
Vascular Wellness Serves North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia. Expanding to Georgia, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee.
Vascular Wellness provides:
(1) Comprehensive vascular access services to North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia;
(2) Customized vascular access services to Tennessee and Georgia; and
(3) Support vascular access services to Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Kentucky
