I would like some advice from other hospials about what they are doing when a patient is admitted with a power port and the hospital does not have a power port needle from the same manufacturer as the port. Our hospital inserts the Bard Power Port and we have Bard power infusion needles. If a patient comes into our hospital with a Deltec power port is it acceptable to use a Bard power infusion needle, or should the hospital carry an assortment of power needles? What would the liability be for not using a compatible needle? The package insert instructs you to use the same brand power injection needle.
Currently we have two different power needles. One needle is for the power ports our physicians insert and the other is for a common power injectable port that we have seen placed by other hospitals. We will get an occassional patient with a totally different power manufacturer that is in the area vacationing. We have used either power needle in this port.
The concept for all these power needles is its ability to withstand power injection not that it can only work in its bundled FDA cleared device. Smiths Medical has a white paper which tested its power needle with a list of power ports.
I think our hospital is going to switch to Smiths just to simplify having one power injectable needle on the shelf.