A comparison of organized, team based, intravenous therapy with conventional care methods.

The objectives of this investigation were to determine the incidence of various complications of infusion therapy in patients treated by a trained intravenous therapy team as compared to those which occurred when the conventional approach of disseminated professional personnel was utilized. Specific anatomical sites of venipuncture as well as specific indwelling intravenous devices were compared in order to identify possible contributing factors to infusion complications. A single-blind study of 204 randomly selected patients receiving intravenous therapy is presented, and the observed infusion complications are statistically analyzed. The surface topography of seven sample catheters was observed, and twenty-seven scanning electron micrographs are shown as representative of the analyses. Significantly fewer thrombophlebitis infusion complications were observed in those patients cared for by the intravenous therapy team than in patients cared for by other individual professional groups. Observations of the Desert Pharmaceutical Company's Augiocath catheter showed significantly fewer thrombophlebitis complications for all catheter sizes used, however, the 22-gauge size produced significantly more solution infiltration complications. Total complications versus total venipunctures utilizing catheters showed no significant differences among the four manufactures. The major conclusions were: (1) The use of a trained team of registered nurses in the provision of intravenous therapy significantly reduces the rates of infusion complications in the patient population. (2) All observed catheters had a relatively low level of resistance to thrombus adherence.