I am a member of an IV therapy/PICC team. I tabulate our monthly phlebitis statistics. Until recently, I thought there was a national benchmark to keep our phlebitis rates under 7-8%. Our rates are at or below 1%; however, I'd like to have a measurable goal to compare our rates to the rest of the nation.
According to the Infusion Nursing Standards of Practice the acceptable peripheral-short catheter phlebitis rate should be 5% or less in any given population. You can find this info on page S59-L. S59-M gives you the formula to use to calculate the phlebitis rate. Infusion Nurses society is a national nonprofit organization that sets standards in infusion therapy. I'm not quite sure if this answers your question but I hope it helps.
Thank you so much. This does answer my question.
Is there still a bench number phlebitis and if so where do I find it?
NO. You will find rates in a number of published studies but that is all. The only national database is for CLABSI at the CDC.
Lynn Hadaway, M.Ed., RN, BC, CRNI
Lynn Hadaway Associates, Inc.
126 Main Street, PO Box 10
Milner, GA 30257
Website http://www.hadawayassociates.com
Office Phone 770-358-7861
You are looking at a very old copy of the INS Standards. That 5% guideline was removed at least 10 years ago. Those page numbers in the 2016 most recent edition is not about phlebitis at all.
Lynn Hadaway, M.Ed., RN, BC, CRNI
Lynn Hadaway Associates, Inc.
126 Main Street, PO Box 10
Milner, GA 30257
Website http://www.hadawayassociates.com
Office Phone 770-358-7861
Thats what I figured as the post was several years old and I could not find a benchmark in the 2016 standards. I was just curious and had used phelbitis rates from several PIV studies in a presentation for our patient care leadership including our CNO who asked if there was a national benchmark. The rates of phlebitis in the studies seemed quite high compared to ours. My presentation was on IV complications reates (phlebitis & infiltration) after shifting our PIV policy to the clinically indicated model. Our phlebitis rates have remained between 2% and 4% post policy change. Our infiltration rates have also remained between 2% & 4% after the policy chance and a heavy educational roll out to nursing staff. Tracking retrospectively through Epic flowsheet LDA reporting and comparing to filed incident reports.
Andrew Walker BSN, RN, VA-BC, CRNI, PCCN