Is anyone using the larger alcohol prep pads ... like Webcol? They are so much nicer to scrub hubs. I always felt I contaminated the alcohol pad when I used the smaller size. I want my hospital to switch to the larger alcohol pad system wide and need evidence or supporting information to justify increased cost. We suggested the protective disinfecting caps (curos, etc.), but were turned down d/t cost, even when looking at the cost of an infection.
Thank you,
Dawn BSN, RN
Forum topic
Mon, 06/29/2015 - 15:32
#1
Large alcohol prep pads
All evidence for manually disinfecting a connection surface is in vitro not clinical. So this aspect of size of pad has not been studied. The only clinical evidence comes from several studies on disinfecting caps. Lynn
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
We are using the larger alcohol preps and yes it does make it easier to get a good scrub all around the hub without having to shift the pad. And yes we have been using the Curos as well and it has made a dramatic drop in infection. We place Curos on all ports of IV Line as well. Get the sells rep in supporting the benefit of Curo usage.
Debra Rivie RN VA-BC
Long Beach Memorial Medical Center
Debra Rivie RN VA-BC
Long Beach Memorial Medical Center
Long Beach, CA
I work on an acute care inpatient oncology unit. When our network went to the smaller alcohol pads, our unit had issues with the smaller alcohol pads not being large enough to adequately scrub the hubs. The outpatient cancer infusion unit, though, uses the smaller alcohol pads. Our oncology unit is the only unit in the network that uses the alcohol caps due to the higher risk for infection for our patients.