Infusion therapy is invasive and touches virtually all patients entering the hospital. Given its importance, the current rates of infusion therapy complications, as well as the costs and the waste associated with it, a thorough assessment should be made of a facility’s’ outcomes related to infusion services. This is the opinion expressed in an Infusion Nurses Society white paper.
The current fiscal constraints in healthcare require a careful assessment of the methods for delivery of vital infusion services. This assessment should include peripheral and central catheter infections, infiltration and extravasation among other considerations.
The conclusion reached in the white paper states, “Delivery methods for providing safe patient care with positive, lower-cost outcomes may vary between facilities.” For some facilities it may mean an infusion team and for others it may mean delivery of infusion therapy by all registered nursing staff.
