sleepyhead

Yes you can use vacutainers on portacaths. However, this often doesn't work because they are often very positional. Meaning they don't draw well unless the patient moves a certain way or inhales and exhales deeply as you are trying to withdraw the blood. I don't even try to use a vacutainer because I want to be able to control the aspiration of blood in case the pac is positional. I use a 10 cc syringe and aspirate a waste then another syringe after to withdraw the blood used for the specimen. Then flush with saline with a "pulse" or "stop-start" method and then with heparinized saline the same way. I then use a "female" vacutainer putting the blood into the tubes (attaches to the syringe). Hope this was helpful.

i've heard with tympanic temps, you're supposed to take it three times and take an average of the three temps to get the most accurate reading.