• PICC Line Nursing Programs
• In-Service Education
• Consulting and Program Evaluations
• Midline Placements
• Difficult Intravenous Access

Consulting and Program Evaluations

Besides initiating a PICC Line Nursing Program and providing in-service education, VAM can also provide consulting and evaluation services. Home health care agencies, for example, have only the need to perform expert care on lines that are already established. However, some institutions may have existing PICC programs in place and only require evaluation and updates of current trends or new standards of practice. VAM performs these functions as well.

Previously seen on a limited basis, home health care nurses are finding more and more PICCs in the community due to increased hospitalization costs, decreases from insurance benefits and the subsequent need to discharge patients earlier. Although they care for PICC lines that are already in place, they still require thorough understanding of maintenance and complications. While addressing these topics only, and using the medical equipment in which your nursing staff has access, we can provide this knowledge as well as helpful hints and facts sheets to insure once limited understanding becomes thorough and fully competent knowledge.

Facilities that insert PICC lines can request us to evaluate their programs. We will shadow, review, and recommend, if necessary, implementation of new practices or merely modifications to existing techniques and standards of care. Similar to a proof-reader, our outside eyes with specific and concentrated expertise might enable us to offer suggestions which result in enhanced insertion and/or increased performance of your PICC lines.

Our knowledge basis is diverse in references yet specific in content. We follow current trends, policies and practices as written by the Infusion Nursing Society (INS) and the Association of Vascular Access (AVA) as well as recommendations by the CDC, and are alert to changes in standards of care. While following current trends and their outcomes as well as attending ongoing seminars/education, we are able to provide updated knowledge to facilities for which we fully service as well as those that don't require our complete specialty at this time.