Healthcare providers Outsource Vascular Access to high quality nurse clinicians because it makes clinical and financial sense in many situations, even when the healthcare provider (such as a hospital) has the option to hire in-house resources. Vascular Access is a specialized medical procedure requiring a high level of skill and continuous training and usage of the skills, top supplies such as catheter kits with ECG tip confirmation technology, and expensive medical equipment mainly, ultrasound and related machines that can read and integrate with the ECG tip confirmation technology. The combination and integration of the clinician, the supplies and the equipment naturally favors Outsourcing Vascular Access.
Further, the in-house model (ie, when providers do not Outsource Vascular Access) can lead to disappointment and dissatisfaction as (a) managing the volatility of daily patient needs and employee schedule changes due to attrition, vacation time or sick leave, (b) creating and implementing alternative procedures when the internal resource fails to create access, and (c) addressing the potential for higher infection rates and other issues, can be challenging. Failure of the in-house model can lead to costly patient transportation inside or outside the facility, the use of other, more expensive medical resources and specialists (often eliminating any potential projected savings, especially when taking into account the opportunity cost of using such medical resources for vascular access), patient and family dissatisfaction, and a decrease of medical insurance reimbursement relative to the value of the resources deployed to overcome the issues created. Outsourcing Vascular Access, a specialized, invasive, medical procedure to skilled clinicians, who bring and are trained on all supplies and equipment, to provide bedside service and who have done the procedure many times in diverse settings, is not just typical — It is the preferred and best approach.
Why Outsource Vascular Access with Vascular Wellness?
Vascular Wellness’ sole focus is Vascular Access. Vascular Wellness delivers the highest quality, most innovative, and incredibly responsive service making it a superior solution for Outsourcing Vascular Access. Hospitals, non-hospitals such as long term acute care, skilled care, outpatient, and hospice facilities, and third party providers such as pharmacies and mobile x-ray companies all benefit from outsourcing their vascular access needs to Vascular Wellness across all facets including clinical, financial, and administrative. Vascular Wellness excels at even the most difficult of cases as its clinicians have a vast amount of diverse experience and the benefit of an available team and dedicated administrator on-call, when needed. Vascular Wellness’ core values of integrity, quality, innovation, and teamwork align with its passion for the field of vascular access and delivers a superior and holistic healthcare solution to its patients and top notch education and consulting such as infection control training, for its clients.
How do Vascular Wellness clinicians improve patient outcomes, reduce costs, and strengthen infection control?
Vascular Wellness’ orientation and on-boarding program, on-going training and skill set development, usage, and verification, and teamwork across employees all contribute to improving patient outcomes, reducing costs, and strengthening infection control, and in virtually all cases, a better vascular access experience for all stakeholders including clients, the medical team, patients, and families.
Vascular Wellness’ orientation program ensures that all employees learn and implement all best practices. Vascular Wellness does not hire contractors so to enable full control over scheduling and clinical procedures to ensure quality, consistency, and reliability of service. The orientation program requires company certification of employees after completing thorough didactic training (classroom and simulations) and hands-on training in the field (with skilled, scrubbed, preceptors alongside) that involves the employee trainee placing anywhere from 50 to 100 lines per procedure type. Employees receive training on Ultrasound (US) guided PIVs, Midlines, and Peripherally Inserted Central Catheters (PICC), and when proficient, employees undergo similar didactic and hands-on training for the more advanced small bore lines like Internal Jugular lines (IJs) and Femoral lines (Fems), and large bore lines, such as a Vas Cath for Dialysis and Quad Lumens. Pediatric didactic and hands-on training is also provided as an advanced skill set as infants and kids are not just “small adults.” Vascular Wellness internally verifies and certifies skill sets twice a year to ensure implementation and compliance with all best practices and clinical procedures. Employees stay connected daily using a HIPAA compliant platform and consult as needed to help ensure the best vascular access procedure and outcome even in the most challenging cases.
Vascular Wellness clinicians take a comprehensive approach on vascular access and evaluate a patient’s physical condition and medical history before any vascular access device placement. They analyze the patient’s medical and laboratory data as well as the managing physician’s therapy plan and follow best practices for vein preservation and to help prevent any side effects such as Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVTs), bleeding, or infection. The clinicians work with the managing physician to develop the best veinous placement and often, the physician defers to the Vascular Wellness clinician to recommend and place the most clinically appropriate vascular access device. Vascular Wellness is particularly proud of this deference from the medical staff.
To read more about how Vascular Wellness clinicians incorporate the patient’s medical history into their vascular access device recommendation, please see Patient Medical History – What are Vascular Access Clinicians Analyzing?
To read more about how Vascular Wellness clinicians excel at Vascular Access, please see What does a Vascular Access Nurse do?
How does Vascular Wellness support clients’ administrative needs?
In addition to positive patient outcomes that improve patient, family, client, and medical team satisfaction, Vascular Wellness also provides a superior infrastructure and administrative platform that compliments this clinical expertise and supports its clients’ administrative needs.
For clients, Vascular Wellness maintains a 24/7 call center with a clinician on-call should a consultation be needed. This consult can be used to help assess a potential patient not currently being seen by Vascular Wellness or a current patient with an existing line that may need some care and maintenance. Vascular Wellness clinicians provide service 7 days week/365 days year and are generally available 12 hours/day during weekdays for deployment meaning service can extend beyond the 12 hour window. While weekends and holidays have shorter deployment windows, clients have been very happy with Vascular Wellness’ responsiveness during these times. If service is needed, Vascular Wellness generally delivers same day service. This is a flat fee-for-service model meaning no fee if no service is needed. Vascular Wellness services include all the equipment and supplies such as the Ultrasound (US) machine. There is nothing for the client to prepare or have onsite, and this coverage enables the client to have the resources available for volume spikes, staff augmentation, or any other urgent or non-urgent needs such as the inability for in-house resources to create access.
In addition, Vascular Wellness offers its clients full credentialing to ensure compliance with internal polices and other policies such as The Joint Commission. Further, Vascular Wellness provides full clinical procedure documentation, detailed invoicing, quality reports, board and trustee meeting participation, staff education, infection prevention consulting and virtually everything needed to integrate seamlessly with the internal medical team and staff as well as client technology. Vascular Wellness will assist clients in configuring their internal technology to fully capture all aspects of the procedure, which has helped its clients submit full documentation for complete reimbursement. Vascular Wellness provides a superior holistic solution for Vascular Access.
Will Vascular Wellness save our facility money in the long run?
Based on experience with its clients, Vascular Wellness can provide cost savings for its clients that can either be reallocated to other areas or reinvested for additional services in the Vascular Access area such as education. The direct cost savings typically come from its fee-for-service model where the client only pays for services it needs along with the extra benefit that Vascular Wellness comes with all supplies and equipment needed. There is no capital investment, no inventory supply management, no internal employee training costs, and no risk of a fully trained employee leaving or being unavailable due to vacation or sick time. Vascular Wellness retains all risk of damage to the ultrasound machines and related equipment and expiration of supplies, and thus, the Vascular Wellness solution enables cost management and cost savings.
Other potential savings and revenue enhancements derive from Vascular Wellness placing the right line the first time (even in complicated cases for which Vascular Wellness clinicians have extensive and diverse experience such as those with DVT’s, Kidney Disease, Breast Cancer, Upper Arm Cellulitis, and limited mobility), meaning in the case of a hospital, faster and more effective treatment that can reduce length of stay at the facility and the freeing of other medical resources. In the case of non-hospitals such as skilled nursing, this can mean no transportation expense to and from a hospital. Further, moving a patient to a hospital can expose the patient to other disease and illness and can result in the facility’s loss of control over the patient’s care. In addition, Vascular Wellness is very proficient in the use of Midlines (Single and Double Lumens) which can be a good alternative to the more expensive PICC when clinically appropriate. High quality, fast, reliable, and consistent service to the bedside provides superior outcomes that can save money.
What other benefits does Vascular Wellness bring that support Outsourcing Vascular Access?
Vascular Wellness’ vision of “Advancing Healthcare. Empowering Nurses.” means that Vascular Wellness continues to innovate and provide its clinicians the tools needed to provide the best Vascular Access procedure. Vascular Wellness works with local Nursing Boards and The Joint Commission to continue to advance what nurses can do to improve patient outcomes. For example, Vascular Wellness developed and received approval to provide Large Bore lines, including Vas Cath for Dialysis and Quad Lumen lines, and have successfully placed such lines. Along with the company knowledge that comes with placing many thousands of lines that gets incorporated into its clinical procedures, Vascular Wellness brings this innovation to our clients to help provide the best treatment possible to our common patients.
If you require Vascular Access or want to learn more, speak to the team at Vascular Wellness today.
Vascular Wellness serves North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia and expanding to Georgia, Tennessee, and Kentucky.
