Provide Good Care, Save With Secondary Tubing
- Looking for less expensive options, like switching from primary tubing to secondary tubing
- Using secondary instead of primary tubing for IV patients, whenever it is medically safe
- Working through the change so everyone on the team understands and adapts
What can your team do to make sure it's using the right supplies for the job? What else could your team do to keep KP affordable for patients and members?
Primary tubing can be costly, and for good reason. With IV drugs that have a higher potential for adverse reactions, primary tubing prevents more medication from reaching the patient if the line needs to be shut off. But there is less concern with low-reaction drugs, and the difference in cost is $3.45. Over a year that can add up to $25,000. An Oregon nurse noted this, so her UBT opted to go with secondary tubing whenever primary tubing wasn't medically necessary. The team changed its habits and the switch took off. So did the team: it reached Level 4 on the Path to Performance.
Primary tubing can be medically necessary to help prevent adverse reactions, but when the potential is low secondary tubing can be just as effective. Here's how.
Using secondary tubing instead of primary tubing when medically safe can save thousands.
potential annual savings by using secondary tubing instead of primary tubing