Forum topic

We recently had a patient with a port a cath in our hospital that was receiving 2-3 different IV push meds at all different hours.  The nurses were flushing with saline after the meds but not locking the port off with heparin. Our policy states to flush with NS and then 500 units of heparin after administering medications unless there is a continuous IV going. The patient was ambulatory and did not want to be hooked to an IV pole.  It would seem to be that flushing with Heparin after each medication administration would have been such a high risk for HIT syndrome.  I was just wondering if flushing with just saline was most appropriate action to take with this situation.

Thanks,

Kim Springer