Current guidelines for central line maintainence

[linross5]

Hello! So I've just begun a new nicu job after leaving my old one of 8 years. Wow do the two facilities differ in care. I'm wondering about some specific things. There are several but I'll start with this question:

What is your policy for flushing medicines on central lines when there is currently heparin running in from the main line tpn on single lumen catheters? One place used saline as heparin was already infusing in the main line. The other uses heparin only to flush after every med including prn analgesics. Too much heparin?

Thanks for any info!

[NICU Guy, BSN, RN]

We use saline to flush the med line. Unless your med line is connected high on the main line and the TPN is running really slow, I don't understand why you would need to flush with Heparin.