"A new guide for patients and their family caregivers is using simple text and graphics to help them safely maintain PICC lines-intravenous lines used to deliver medications, chemotherapy, blood products, and other fluids-in the home care setting. Increasing numbers of hospitalized patients are released with these central lines in place, and are expected to safely maintain them, a complex task for which many feel unprepared.
Read the related press release.
Created through a collaboration among United Hospital Fund and two grant recipients, Montefiore Health System and Northwell Health, the guide continues UHF's work to improve patient care and safety in both inpatient and outpatient settings. Designed to supplement personal instruction by home health nursing professionals, the guide is expected to fill an important void in educational resources for family caregivers and patients. This is the second publication developed under this grant initiative; last year, UHF, Montefiore, and Northwell developed a toolkit for home care providers and their hospital infection-control colleagues, consisting of checklists and other resources to help them assess the risk for central line infections, reduce the incidence of infection, and communicate more effectively."