What do you all use to clean suction catheters (for trach) between uses? The patient gets 300 per month of sterile one time use suction kits.
Coming from acute hospital care, I've been using the catheters ONCE and guess who caused the patient to run out and have to purchase $400 worth out of pocket? I had 'help' from the other two conscientious nurses that work with this little boy, but at least they reused theirs twice . . .
So, what are some procedures you all have used to clean the suction catheters between use? This little guy has chronically copious secretions fairly well managed with Singulair, Robinul and PRN Benadryl. On a good day, he needs suctioned a heckuva lot more than ten times.
I did some googling and found research studies that show no increase in pneumonia/tracheitis when the catheters are properly cleaned, but would have had to pay for the article to find out how they were cleaned and what was used.
