Unhooking IV pumps in Xray.....

[dawson16]

Please comment on this IV situation in our hospital.

1. If an inpatient comes to our imaging dept. on a intravenous pump, then we are to re-stick a new venous site instead of using the access provided.

What are current policies on unhooking IV pumps and allowing for contrast media injection through the current site.

2. So many of our patients have a limited number or no IV sites already, and it does not seem ethical to subject some of these critically ill patients to another stick just for the injection of a IV contast media.

3. Please comment on the use of a varied number of technologist, not all registered, on actually suspending the pump and restarting- I am worried about the "button pushers" and incorrect pump restarts.

4. For the safety of the patient, could we not disconnect the patient from the pump for a 60 second IV contrast injection, cap the IV with a blunt cannula tip, allow the pump to keep dripping without interrupting the pump settings, flush the IV site with normal saline after the injection, and then finally reconnect the IV site to the pump.

Please advice on this situation. We need help.

[neneRN, BSN, RN]

Our techs use the already est IV site; they disconnect the infusing med/IVF and restart when finished. They are supposed to ask the nurse before doing this in case it is a med that can't be stopped, i.e, a vasopressor. However, I've never had a tech call and ask me if its okay to stop the med. On the other hand, if a pt is that critical that they are pressor dependant, then I'm usually with the pt in scan. Maybe 2 or 3 times have I had it happen that the med didn't get hooked back up by the tech when finished. Although our techs can technically start IVs, I've never known one to do it; they usually call the nurse to come do it. (this is in an ER with its own CT dept, so nurses are always 30 sec away)