A new study in the peer-reviewed Journal of the Association for Vascular Access (JAVA) examines several important metrics that describe the performance of the ivWatch Model 400 at a leading children’s hospital in Ohio. ivWatch reports that the key finding of the pilot study was the device detected a peripheral IV infiltration 80 percent of the time before the clinician detected the leakage event.
This pilot study at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital was undertaken in part because of the medical center’s commitment to patient safety including efforts to reduce severe and moderate peripheral IV infiltration and extravasation occurrences. The results underline the practice of using an additional intervention in conjunction with following industry recommendations of IV site assessment to promote the earliest possible identification of this common complication of IV therapy.
Data was collected on 156 patients where the ivWatch Model 400 was incorporated into IV therapy but did not notify clinicians of infiltration, and then compared to data on 57 patients where the ivWatch Model 400 notified clinicians via audible and visual alerts about infiltration events. This allowed investigators to analyze how the ivWatch Model 400 compared to clinicians’ assessments in the early detection of IV infiltration. Success was measured by the frequency of infiltration events and how often the device issued notifications.
The study, which appears in the Summer 2019 issue of JAVA, showed that on average the device issued a notification signaling a possible infiltration (Yellow Check IV) 32.3 hours prior to a clinician detecting it, while a notification signaling a probable infiltration (Red Check IV) was issued an average of 29.8 hours prior to clinician detection. It was also concluded by the authors of the study at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, “technology that provides early detection of IV infiltrations may be advantageous for the patient, clinician, and institution.
